502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment Strike Embroidered Patch

Only two men of the 101st Airborne Division received the Medal of Honor in World War II, and both were 502nd Parachute Infantry: Lt. Col. Robert G. Cole and Pfc. Joe E. Mann. Cole led the bayonet charge at Carentan in June 1944, and both men were lost in Holland that September in the fighting around Best. That is the regiment behind the single word on this patch, STRIKE. The 502nd was activated on March 2, 1942 and assigned to the 101st that August. Today its 1st and 2nd Battalions belong to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, the Strike Brigade, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

The regiment jumped in the first wave on D-Day, and although most of its men landed well off their drop zones, the 1st Battalion took Saint-Martin-de-Varreville while Cole's 3rd Battalion went after the causeways. In September 1944 it landed near Best during Operation Market Garden and fought for the bridge there. At Bastogne the 502nd held the north and northwest side of the perimeter, and on Christmas morning it threw back German tanks at Hemroulle, a day before the 4th Armored Division broke through. Reorganized as the 502nd Infantry in 1957, it sent its 2nd Battalion to Vietnam with the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne in 1965, where Capt. Bill Carpenter and 1st Sgt. Walter Sabalauski earned the Distinguished Service Cross on Operation Hawthorne in June 1966 and the 1st Battalion fought in the A Shau Valley. The regiment flew in the February 24, 1991 air assault of Desert Storm, led the 101st into Iraq in 2003 through Najaf and Karbala, and fought in Kandahar Province during Operation Dragon Strike in 2010.

The patch is 3.5 inches square, a blue shield with a gold border set over a gold scroll, with a cut edge that follows the outline. A gold eagle's claw comes down from the top of the shield with its talons spread, the scales of the leg stitched out one by one. The talons are tipped in black, what heralds call armed sable. Blue is the Infantry color and the claw stands for the airborne role, and the scroll below reads STRIKE in blue serif letters. It has an iron-on backing and can be sewn on if you want it permanent.

The 502nd has been an air assault regiment since 1974, but its soldiers still carry the paratroopers of 1944 with them. Cole, Mann, Carentan, Best and Hemroulle are the names the regiment hands down. Vietnam veterans of the regiment carry the A Shau and Hawthorne the same way, and a younger generation carries Najaf, Karbala and Kandahar. The losses along the way are part of what the word on the scroll means. A soldier who wore the Screaming Eagle with the 502nd needs no one to explain it.

Mount it in a shadow box with your jump wings, Air Assault badge and a 101st Airborne patch, or wear it on the vest you take to a Strike reunion at Fort Campbell. It also makes a good gift for a grandson who wants something from his grandfather's regiment. An eagle's claw and one word.