Army Ranger Tab Subdued OD Green Patch

The Ranger Tab was created in 1950, during the Korean War, and its first version was black and red and spelled out RANGERS. It was adapted from the traditional Ranger scroll to recognize the men who finished training for the Ranger companies of that war. The training was run by the Ranger Training Command, which on 10 October 1951 became the Ranger Department of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Ranger School is still at Fort Benning. When the tab was created it was also awarded retroactively to graduates of the Ranger Training Command course and to certain World War II veterans who earned the Combat Infantryman Badge with the Ranger battalions or with the 5307th Composite Unit, Merrill's Marauders.

The tab is a quadrant-shaped patch worn on the upper left sleeve, 2 3/8 inches long and 11/16 inch high, and it is one of the Army's four permanent individual skill and marksmanship tabs. In precedence it sits below the Special Forces Tab and above the Sapper Tab, and no soldier wears more than three tabs at once. From 1954 into the early 1970s the Army aimed for one Ranger-qualified NCO in every infantry platoon and one Ranger-qualified officer in every company. The tab is required for soldiers in leadership positions in the 75th Ranger Regiment. Canada also authorizes it on the Canadian Armed Forces uniform.

This is the subdued version, an olive drab arc with RANGER in block black letters, 2.5 by 0.69 inches, with a cut edge and an iron-on backing. The arc curves up over the lettering, the same shape that sits at the top of the sleeve above a unit patch. It carries no number, no unit and no device, because the tab names a course finished, not a unit served in. Some sellers call this shape a rocker, but the arc and the 11/16 inch height are the tab's. OD and black keep it quiet on a field jacket.

Ranger School has a reputation the whole Army knows, and the tab is how that shows on a uniform. Tabbed leaders took platoons and companies through Korea, Vietnam and every fight since. The tab says nothing about rank or unit. It says the soldier wearing it finished the course, and other soldiers read it before they read a name tape.

Put it in a shadow box above a unit patch, or sew it to a field jacket or the vest worn to a reunion. It is a natural gift for a Ranger School graduate, or for a son or daughter who wants to honor one. Six letters, and everyone in the Army knows what they mean.