GM Gunner's Mate Navy Ratings Patch

Under the crossed cannons sit two signal flags, Golf in yellow and blue stripes and Mike with a white diagonal cross on blue, and together they spell GM. Gunner's Mate is one of the Navy's oldest ratings, authorized by the Naval Armament Act of 1794. The GM keeps a ship's weapons ready, from small arms in the armory to the gun mounts and missile launchers topside. Every GM knows the crossed cannons on sight.

Gunner's mates train at "A" school at Great Lakes, Illinois, learning naval guns, missile launchers, torpedoes, explosives, small arms and ammunition handling and safety. Many go on to a "C" school in a specialty: 5-inch gun systems, vertical launching systems, gun mount systems, torpedoes, small arms or magazine sprinkler systems. In 2007 the Navy merged the torpedoman's mate rating into GM, so torpedoes belong to the rating now as well. GMs run armories and small arms ranges. It is a surface warfare rating at heart, working alongside fire controlmen and aviation ordnancemen.

The patch is the standard Navy rating shape, 4.5 inches wide and 3.25 inches tall, with curved gold bands framing a navy blue field. The top band reads "UNITED STATES NAVY" and the bottom band reads "GUNNER'S MATE" in navy blue lettering. A big white G and M flank a pair of white crossed cannons, muzzles up, with the Golf and Mike flags stitched small beneath them. A thin white line outlines the center panel, and a navy blue merrowed edge finishes the border. It has a sew-on backing, made to be stitched onto a jacket, vest or bag.

A gunner's mate's work is measured in readiness: magazines inspected, mounts maintained, launchers tested and ordnance accounted for down to the last round. When the ship goes to general quarters, the weapons answer because a GM kept them that way. The rating goes back to the act that built the Navy's first frigates. Ordnance leaves no room for a second try, and GMs learn that before anything else.

Mount it in a shadow box with a ship's plaque and a set of qualification pins, or sew it on the vest worn to reunions. It also makes a good gift for a new GM heading to the fleet, or for a retired gunner's mate who still checks the bore before anything else. The cannons say the rest.