Navy Supply Corps Patch

Navy supply officers answer to "Chop," a nickname that comes from the oak leaf sprig on their collars and its likeness to a pork chop. That sprig of gold oak leaves and acorns sits at the center of this patch. The Supply Corps counts its birthday as 23 February 1795, the day President George Washington appointed Tench Francis Jr. the nation's first Purveyor of Public Supplies. Its motto is "Ready for Sea," the report a supply department head gives the captain before the ship gets under way. Every sailor who ever drew pay, ate a meal on the mess decks or waited on a part has depended on that report.

Pursers handled the money and stores from the Navy's earliest days, and Purser Samuel Hambleton fought at the Battle of Lake Erie. In 1860 the purser became the paymaster, and through the 1860s paymasters took over shore-based naval logistics from civilians. The 1905 pattern of the device grouped three oak leaves and three acorns at the stem. The Act of 11 July 1919 renamed the Pay Corps the Supply Corps, and that same year the leaves went to gold embroidery. New Supply Corps officers train at the Navy Supply Corps School at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, and the corps numbered about 2,200 officers in 2018.

The patch is a 3 inch round with a cut edge and an iron-on backing. A gold rope border rings a navy blue band lettered SUPPLY CORPS across the top and UNITED STATES NAVY across the bottom, with a gold star on each side. In the light blue center, circled in white, the gold oak leaf sprig lies on its side with orange-gold acorns tucked into the leaves. Navy blue and gold carry the whole design, the colors of the service the Chop keeps supplied.

A supply department runs the galley, the ship's store, disbursing and the parts pipeline, and its officers answer for every dollar and every pound of stores. Logistics Specialists, Culinary Specialists and Ship's Servicemen do that work beside them. A ship with a sharp supply officer sails on time, eats well and gets its parts. Sailors remember that, even if they only noticed when something ran short.

It fits a shadow box with a supply officer's collar devices and commissioning photo, a jacket for a Supply Corps birthday ball, or a range bag. It also makes a good gift for a newly commissioned ensign heading to Newport, or a retired Chop who signed for half the ship. Ready for Sea, stitched in gold.