4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion LAR Patch

4th LAR is the Marine Corps Reserve's light armored reconnaissance battalion, with companies spread from Camp Pendleton to Boise to Syracuse. The Marines call themselves the Iron Horse Marines. They train on weekends and two weeks a year, then mobilize and fight the same LAV-25 as the active battalions. The battalion belongs to the 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve. Its job is reconnaissance and security out in front of the division, moving fast on eight wheels.

The battalion was activated on 23 September 1987 as the 4th Light Armored Vehicle Battalion and redesignated the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion on 1 October 1996. Headquarters and Service Company and Alpha Company sit at Camp Pendleton, with Bravo at Fort Detrick, Maryland, Charlie in Boise, Idaho, Delta at Quantico, Echo in Syracuse, New York, and Fox in Eastover, South Carolina. Its Marines deployed to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield and Desert Storm from December 1990 to April 1991. They went back for the 2003 invasion of Iraq with I Marine Expeditionary Force, and mobilized again for Afghanistan from November 2009 to May 2010. The LAV-25 carries an M242 Bushmaster 25mm chain gun, and a platoon runs four vehicles.

This patch is a 3.12 by 4 inch shield of bright red with a curved notch taken out of the upper left corner and a gold merrowed edge. A wide gray band runs corner to corner, and an LAV-25 rolls along it in tan, eight wheels down and the turret gun forward. Over the hull sits a red diamond with a white 4. Four black chess knights, two above the band and two below, frame the vehicle. Knights are horse heads, which suits a battalion of Iron Horse Marines.

Reserve LAR asks a lot of a Marine who also holds down a civilian job. The vehicle crews and scouts have to keep the same skills as the active battalions, from gunnery to dismounted scouting, on far fewer training days. Each time the call came, 4th LAR answered it, in the desert in 1991, in Iraq in 2003 and in Afghanistan in 2009. The companies are small and spread out, so the Marines in them tend to know each other well. Ask any of them and they will tell you which company was theirs.

It fits the sleeve of a jacket or a vest for a battalion reunion, or a shadow box with a photo of the vehicle you crewed. It also makes a good gift for the reservist in the family who drilled one weekend a month and deployed when called. The patch has a sew-on backing, so stitch it down and it stays put. Iron Horse, coast to coast.