How About A Nice Cup Of Shut The Fuck Up Patch

The grinning soldier lifting a mug on this patch comes from a World War II home front rationing poster dated to 1943, where his original line was Do with less, so they'll have enough. Decades later that poster started making the rounds online with a far saltier caption. The new line offers the listener a nice cup of something, and the something is a four-letter suggestion to stop talking. It spread fast because everyone has met the person it was written for. On this patch the soldier keeps his helmet, his grin and his mug, and the caption goes to work.

Morale patches like this one rode on sleeves, ruck lids and team room walls through the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom years. They were never part of any uniform regulation, and that was half the fun. A patch could say what a junior troop could not say out loud to the guy who would not stop briefing. This one says it, then adds a lesson in plain English along the bottom. Every platoon had at least one Joe who needed both halves.

It is a 4 inch circle in coyote tan with a cut edge and a brown outer border. HOW ABOUT A NICE CUP runs around the top in black block letters, and the inner ring finishes the offer with the four-word punch line. In the center, a cream disc holds the soldier in black line work, helmet on, smiling and raising his mug toward you. THINK BEFORE arcs under him, and YOU SAY SOMETHING STUPID closes the outer ring. The backing is iron-on, and it can be sewn on just as easily.

Gallows humor has always been part of service, from the cartoons in Stars and Stripes to the graffiti in a porta-john at a forward operating base. It is how people under pressure keep their edge without losing their temper. A coffee mug and a grin on a sand-colored patch say a lot about the people who carried it. The message is blunt, but the advice underneath it is sound. Think first.

It works on a range bag, a lunch cooler, or the patch panel of a backpack, as long as it is not going to a family reunion. It also makes a good gift for the coworker or old squadmate who still talks too much in meetings. Coffee is optional.