9th Infantry Division Vietnam Patch

The octofoil on the 9th Infantry Division patch is the heraldic mark of a ninth son, which is how the Old Reliables came to wear an eight-petaled flower for the number nine. In Vietnam that flower went to the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta. The division began arriving in December 1966 from Fort Riley, Kansas, where it had been re-raised on 1 February of that year. Its 2nd Brigade lived aboard Navy barracks ships and fought from the water as the Army half of the Mobile Riverine Force. Elements of the division served 1,440 days in Vietnam.

The 9th set up in III Corps near Saigon, completing the ring of U.S. divisions around the capital region. Operation Palm Beach swept Dinh Tuong Province from January to May 1967, and Dong Tam was built near My Tho on a 600-acre island made by dredging. The 2nd Brigade arrived in January 1967 as the first element of the Mobile Riverine Force, paired with the Navy's Task Force 117 and its armored troop carriers and monitors. After the 1968 Tet fighting, General William Westmoreland said the division and the riverine force had saved the Delta. Major Generals George Eckhardt, George G. O'Connor, Julian J. Ewell and Harris W. Hollis commanded the division in Vietnam.

This is a 3 inch round patch with a black merrowed border and a wide black ring. 9TH INFANTRY DIVISION arches across the top in tan letters, and VIETNAM runs along the bottom in red. In the olive drab center sits the octofoil, red over blue with a white disc in the middle. Count the points and there are eight. It measures 3 inches wide by 3 inches tall with an iron-on backing.

The 9th was a World War II division before it was a Vietnam one. It landed in North Africa in November 1942, came ashore at Palermo in August 1943, landed in Normandy on 10 June 1944 and crossed the Rhine at the Remagen bridge on 7 March 1945. In Vietnam the Old Reliables fought in the paddies, canals and mangrove of the Delta, where a soldier was seldom dry. Division headquarters and the 1st Brigade left for Hawaii on 27 August 1969 and the 2nd Brigade went to Fort Lewis, Washington. The 3rd Brigade stayed on, fought into Cambodia and did not leave until 12 October 1970.

It belongs on the jacket or vest a Delta veteran wears to a reunion, or in a shadow box with his ribbons and a photo from Dong Tam. It also makes a good gift for a son or grandson who wants to know where his father served. The iron-on backing goes down with a household iron, and a few stitches at the edge will keep it there for good. Eight points, red over blue, and the men who wore it know the rest.