Silver Dolphins Rectangle Small Patch

The first enlisted dolphins were not metal at all: in 1924 they were embroidered in silk, white for blue uniforms, and sewn on the right sleeve between the wrist and the elbow. The device was proposed on 13 June 1923 by Captain Ernest J. King, then commanding Submarine Division Three and later Fleet Admiral. Acting Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt Jr. approved it in March 1924. The design shows the bow and conning tower of a submarine flanked by two dolphins. It was for officers and enlisted men qualified in submarines, and it still is.

Officers got a gold-plated pin in 1924, worn over the left breast pocket. In 1947 the enlisted embroidered device moved from the sleeve to above the left breast pocket. A change to the Uniform Regulations on 21 September 1950 authorized a silver-plated pin for enlisted submariners, and that is where the name Silver Dolphins comes from. A 1941 change let a qualified man keep wearing his dolphins after he left the boats. From the diesel fleet boats of World War II to the SSN fast attacks and SSBN missile boats of the Cold War, the requirement has stayed the same: learn the whole boat, systems and all, and pass the qualification board.

This is a small rectangle, 3 inches by 1.5 inches, on navy blue twill with a navy merrowed edge. The dolphins are stitched in silver-white thread with black outlining that picks out their scales, fins and curled tails. At the center sit the bow and conning tower of the boat, with a dolphin on each side facing in. Silver on navy blue echoes the very first embroidered enlisted dolphins, white on blue. The size suits a uniform-style placement above a pocket, a cover or a small display frame.

Every submariner remembers the day he got his fish. Until then he was a rider, a nub, a man still learning the boat, and after that he was trusted to act in any compartment when something went wrong. Qualification meant knowing propulsion, weapons, damage control and every valve in between, because on a submerged boat there is no one else to call. Officers wear gold and enlisted sailors wear silver, and both earned them the same way. That shared standard is what holds the submarine force together.

It fits a shadow box with a boat's patch and a qual card, or the vest worn to a submarine veterans base meeting. It is also a good gift for a sailor who just pinned on his dolphins, or for the old diesel boat sailor in the family. The iron-on backing goes on with a household iron, and it can also be sewn on for a permanent hold. Small patch, big qualification.