3rd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment Beret Flash with Crest Patch

The four colors in the shield at the center of this flash, blue, white, red and green, were four of the six combat teams of Merrill's Marauders in Burma. The 75th Ranger Regiment traces its line to the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), the Marauders, who fought behind Japanese lines in the China-Burma-India Theater in 1943 and 1944. The white sun stands for the Chinese forces they fought beside, and the white star is the Star of Burma, where they fought. The lightning bolt is the strike, the behind-the-lines raids that made the Marauders famous. Put that crest on the 3rd Battalion's flash and you have the whole family tree on one small patch.

The battalion's headquarters traces to 1943 in the CBI as part of the 5307th, and its Company A traces to the 3d Ranger Battalion of World War II, through the 3d Ranger Infantry Company activated at Fort Benning on 28 October 1950. Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion, 75th Infantry, was activated at Fort Benning, Georgia, on 2 October 1984. On 3 February 1986 it became the 3d Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. Its campaign credit runs from New Guinea, Normandy and Central Burma through Korea and Vietnam to the armed forces expeditions in Panama and Somalia. Since 2001 it has fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. The battalion is still at Fort Benning.

The flash is the familiar beret flash shape, 2 inches wide by 2.25 inches tall, with a thick black merrowed edge and an iron-on back. Inside the black border the field splits on a diagonal, green above and blue below, with a slanted band of red, white, gold and white running corner to corner. Three small red bars sit in the black on each side. Over the center is the regiment's crest, a quartered shield in blue and green with the white sun at upper left, the white star at lower right and a red lightning bolt cutting across, all outlined in white. Enlisted Rangers wear their crest pinned to the center of the flash, and this patch puts the two together in thread.

Every Ranger who wears the 3rd Battalion flash got there through the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program and stayed there by meeting the standard every day. The battalion's streamers cover more ground than most units ever see, from the jungle in Burma to the mountains of Afghanistan. Rangers lead the way, and the battalion has spent the last four decades proving it. The flash and the crest together tell a Ranger where his battalion came from. Anyone who served in it will know this one on sight.

Put it in a shadow box with a tan beret, a scroll and a set of jump wings, or on a range bag or a vest. It is also a good gift for a Ranger from 3rd Battalion or for a young soldier headed to Fort Benning. Small patch, long lineage.