327th Airborne Infantry Regiment Patch

The three white fleurs-de-lis on the red band of this shield stand for the three major operations the 327th Infantry fought in France in 1918: Saint-Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne and Lorraine. The regiment was constituted in 1917 for the 82nd Division and organized that September at Camp Gordon, Georgia. In August 1942 it was reorganized as a glider infantry regiment and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division. Today the 327th is the infantry core of the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Its soldiers go by the Bastogne Bulldogs.

Most of the regiment came ashore by sea at Utah Beach on the afternoon of 7 June 1944, because there were not enough aircraft to tow its gliders. In Operation Market Garden that September, the 327th fought near Best and later at Opheusden in the Netherlands. At Bastogne in December 1944 it held half of the perimeter, with heavy fighting at Marvie. The 1st and 2nd Battalions deployed to South Vietnam on 29 July 1965, where the 2nd Battalion took up the motto No Slack and the 1st Battalion received the Presidential Unit Citation in 1968. The 1st Brigade went into Iraq in 2003, and the 2nd Battalion fought in the Barawala Kalay Valley of Afghanistan in 2011.

This is a 3.5 inch shield-shaped patch with a cut edge that follows its outline. The blue field carries a white palmetto tree pulled up by its roots, crossed by a red diagonal band edged in white that holds the three fleurs-de-lis. Blue is the infantry's color, and the palmetto is South Carolina's tree, a nod to the regiment's home state in its Organized Reserve years. The red band recalls the old French province of Lorraine, where the regiment fought in 1918. Under the shield, a white scroll reads HONOR AND COUNTRY in black letters.

Bastogne is the name that follows this regiment everywhere. The 101st was surrounded there in December 1944, and the 327th held its share of the line in snow and cold until the siege was broken. The 1st Brigade carries the name Bastogne Brigade to this day. In Vietnam the 2nd Battalion picked up No Slack, coined by First Sergeant Raymond E. Benson, and it has stayed with the battalion. A soldier who wore this crest joined a line that runs from Camp Gordon in 1917 to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It fits a shadow box next to a Screaming Eagle patch and a photo from Fort Campbell, or the jacket worn to a 101st reunion. It is also a good gift for a son or grandson whose father served with 1-327 or 2-327 in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. The iron-on backing goes onto a jacket, vest or range bag. Honor and Country, from the Meuse-Argonne to Bastogne.