506th Airborne Infantry Regiment Large Patch

The first troopers of the 506th learned the word Currahee on a Georgia mountain, running three miles up and three miles down. The regiment was activated on 20 July 1942 at Camp Toccoa under Colonel Robert F. Sink, and Currahee Mountain was the hill above the camp. The Cherokee word translates as "stand alone," and it became the regiment's motto. The 506th went on to jump into Normandy, fight in Holland and hold at Bastogne. It also picked up a nickname from a pair of dice, and that is what this patch carries.

The regiment was constituted on 1 July 1942 as the 506th Parachute Infantry and joined the 101st Airborne Division on 10 June 1943. On the night of 6 June 1944 its sticks were scattered across the Cotentin, and Lt. Richard Winters led the assault on the guns at Brecourt Manor. That September it went into Holland for Operation Market Garden, and in December it was trucked into Bastogne and surrounded there. By war's end it had helped close the Ruhr Pocket and taken Berchtesgaden. Redesignated the 506th Airborne Infantry on 18 June 1948, it was activated again on 15 May 1954 at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and reorganized as the 506th Infantry in 1957.

This is a 4 inch circle of royal blue finished with a merrowed edge to match. A white parachute canopy spreads across the upper half, its shroud lines running down to a point. A heavy black ring sits over the chute, and a gold eagle with a white head dives straight down through it, wings up and talons out. Two red dice flank the eagle, one showing five white pips and the other six. It is a paratrooper's design through and through: the chute, the strike from above and the regiment's dice.

The 506th carried the nickname "Pair of Dice," and a pair of dice was painted on original 506th A-2 jackets. Its record runs from Toccoa to the Bulge, and Stephen Ambrose's book made one of its companies famous to a generation that never wore jump boots. The regiment kept going long after the war. The 3rd Brigade's 506th battalions served in Vietnam from late 1967 to 1971, the 1st Battalion went to Iraq in 2004, and the 4th Brigade Combat Team took the Currahee name to Afghanistan in 2008. Troopers from every one of those eras still answer to the same word.

It fits the back of a vest or the shoulder of a jacket worn to a 101st reunion, or a shadow box with jump wings and a photo from Fort Campbell. It also makes a good gift for a son or grandson who grew up hearing about Bastogne. The backing is iron-on, and a few stitches around the edge will hold it for good. Stand alone, roll the dice.