8th Cavalry Regiment Patch

Count the blue stars across the gold band and you get eight, the regiment's number stitched in plain sight. Above them a white horse rears up out of the band, forelegs raised, the cavalry's own animal. The 8th Cavalry Regiment was constituted on 28 July 1866 and organized that September at Camp Reynolds on Angel Island, California. It has been part of the 1st Cavalry Division since the division was activated at Fort Bliss, Texas, on 13 September 1921. HONOR AND COURAGE runs across the scroll at the bottom, the regiment's motto. Troopers who served in its battalions know the horse, the stars and those three words on sight.

The regiment spent its first two decades on the frontier, campaigning in Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and in 1888 it marched more than 2,600 miles to Fort Meade, South Dakota. It went to the Philippines in 1905 and again in 1910, fighting on Mindanao and in the Sulu Archipelago. In World War II the troopers fought dismounted, landing on Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands on 9 March 1944, then going ashore on Leyte that October. Elements of the division reached Manila on 3 February 1945, and after the surrender the 8th Cavalry occupied Tokyo. In Korea the regiment landed at Pohang in 1950 and fought at Unsan that November, where the 3rd Battalion was overrun by Chinese forces. In 1965 the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 8th Cavalry, the Jumping Mustangs, went to Vietnam with the 1st Air Cavalry Division.

The patch measures 2.85 inches wide by 2.35 inches tall and is cut to follow the outline of the horse, the band and the scroll. The horse is stitched in white with gold outlining on the mane, eye and legs. The eight blue stars on the gold band each carry a small white center, and the white panel beneath is wrapped by a black scroll with gold curled ends. HONOR AND COURAGE is stitched in gold block letters along that scroll. A gold embroidered border runs around the whole cut edge, and the back is iron-on.

Unsan cost the regiment more than 800 men in the first days of November 1950, and the 3rd Battalion ceased to exist as a unit on 6 November. Five members of the regiment received the Medal of Honor in Korea. The Jumping Mustangs came home from Vietnam with two Presidential Unit Citations, a Valorous Unit Citation and four Medals of Honor. Battalions of the 8th Cavalry served in Desert Storm and deployed to Iraq in 2004 to 2005, 2006 to 2008 and 2009. Every one of those tours wore the same horse and the same eight stars.

It sits well in a shadow box with a Combat Infantryman Badge and a 1st Cavalry Division shoulder patch, or on the vest a Mustang wears to a battalion reunion. It also makes a good gift for a son or grandson whose family served under the HONOR AND COURAGE scroll. Press it on with the iron-on backing, or sew it down for the long haul. Eight stars, one horse, one regiment.