506th Airborne Infantry Regiment Small Patch

Count the pips: the red die on the left shows five and the one on the right shows six, the same digits as the 506th. This is the World War II dice patch of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, an eagle diving through a white parachute between two rolling dice. The regiment was activated on 20 July 1942 at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, under the shadow of Currahee Mountain. Currahee is a Cherokee word given as Stand Alone, and it became both the regiment's name and its motto.

On D-Day the 506th jumped into Normandy with the 101st Airborne Division, and 1st Lt. Richard Winters led the assault on the guns at Brecourt Manor. Of roughly 2,000 men who jumped, about half were killed, wounded, captured or missing in the Normandy campaign. In September 1944 the regiment went into Holland for Operation Market Garden. That December it was surrounded at Bastogne, where its 1st Battalion fought beside Team Desobry at Noville and Foy. The war ended with the 506th in Berchtesgaden and on occupation duty at Zell am See, Austria.

The patch is a 2.5 inch circle on a royal blue field, finished with a blue merrowed edge. A white canopy opens across the upper half, its shroud lines running down to a point beneath the eagle. The eagle is stitched in gold with a white head, wings up and talons out, diving past a heavy black ring. The two red dice sit on either side with white pips, five on the left and six on the right. The back is iron-on, and at this size it fits places a full-size regimental patch will not.

E Company, 2nd Battalion, is the company most people know, from the 2001 HBO series Band of Brothers. The regiment kept fighting long after. Its 1st and 2nd Battalions served in Vietnam with the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, from late 1967 to 1971, at Hamburger Hill in May 1969 and Fire Support Base Ripcord, and Lt. Col. Andre Lucas received the Medal of Honor for his command at Ripcord. The 1st Battalion guarded the southern entrance to the DMZ from Camp Greaves, Korea, from 1987, then fought at Ramadi in 2005 and 2006. Today the 1st and 2nd Battalions serve in the 101st's 1st and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams.

Set it in a shadow box with a Screaming Eagle patch and jump wings, or press it onto a jacket or a range bag. It also makes a good gift for a Currahee veteran or for a grandson who wants to know what his great-grandfather did in 1944. Five, six and an eagle, still rolling.