66th Armor Regiment Patch

The small blue shield with three gold fleurs-de-lis on this patch carries the arms of Langres, France, and it puts the 66th's roots in the tank brigades of World War I. The regiment traces its line to the headquarters companies of the 1st and 2d Provisional Brigades, Tank Corps, organized in France in August 1918. Between the wars it became the 1st Tank Group, then the 1st Tank Regiment, and in 1932 the 66th Infantry (Light Tanks), back when tanks still belonged to the infantry. In July 1940 it was redesignated the 66th Armored Regiment and assigned to the 2d Armored Division, Hell on Wheels. Its motto is Semper in Hostes, Always Into the Enemy.

The regiment's World War I campaigns are St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. In World War II, with the 2d Armored Division, it earned arrowheads for the assault landings in Algeria-French Morocco and Sicily, then fought through Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland, the Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe. The regiment was broken up in March 1946. On 1 July 1957 it came back as the 66th Armor, a parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System, and in 1983 it moved into the U.S. Army Regimental System.

The patch is a 3.125 by 3.5 inch shield with a cut edge, a gold border and gold scrollwork across the top. The field is split three ways, red on the left, blue on the right and gold at the bottom, the colors of the Tank Corps shoulder patch of 1918. A white label of three points runs across the upper part of the shield. Set into the red is the blue Langres shield with a gold saltire and three gold fleurs-de-lis. There is no lettering, just the arms, which is how a tanker who knows them wants it.

Tankers who served in a 66th Armor battalion inherited honors that run from St. Mihiel to the Bulge. The arrowheads for North Africa and Sicily mean the regiment took part in the assault landings, not just the campaigns that followed. Semper in Hostes is a fair summary of how armor was meant to fight. The coat of arms carries all of that in three colors and a small French shield. It is a design a 66th tanker recognizes from across a room.

Mount it in a shadow box with a 2d Armored Division patch and your old battalion crest, or sew it to the vest you wear to reunions. It also makes a gift for a son or grandson who wants to know where his dad's tank outfit came from. The sew-on backing keeps it on a jacket for good. A compact patch for a regiment that started with the Tank Corps.