Special Operations Command Patch US Special Operations Insignia

US Special Operations Command stood up on 16 April 1987, built on the hard lessons of Operation Eagle Claw, the 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt whose helicopters took off from the deck of USS Nimitz. The Holloway investigation that followed pointed to poor command and control and weak coordination between the services. Congress answered with the Nunn-Cohen Amendment, signed in October 1986, which called for a four-star command devoted to special operations, its own assistant secretary of defense and its own budget line, Major Force Program 11. Gen. James J. Lindsay of the Army took command the day it stood up. Every special operator who has deployed since works inside the structure that amendment built.

The headquarters is at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. Under it sit the service components: US Army Special Operations Command, activated 1 December 1989 with Special Forces, Rangers and special operations aviation; Naval Special Warfare Command, commissioned the same day as SOCOM at Coronado with its SEAL Teams and Special Boat Teams; Air Force Special Operations Command, established 22 May 1990 at Hurlburt Field; and Marine Forces Special Operations Command, activated 24 February 2006 at Camp Lejeune. Joint Special Operations Command, set up in 1980 on Col. Charlie Beckwith's recommendation, is part of it too. SOCOM forces ran Persian Gulf escorts during Operation Earnest Will, fought in Mogadishu during Operation Gothic Serpent and on Takur Ghar in Afghanistan, and carried out Operation Neptune Spear in May 2011.

This patch is an oval, 2.75 by 3.5 inches, cut close around a thick gold rope border. Inside the rope a black band carries UNITED STATES across the top and SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND around the bottom in gold serif letters, with a pair of gold stars on each side where the two lines meet. The center is a black oval holding a single gold spearhead, point up, resting on three stacked gold bars. There is no unit number and no service branch on it, because SOCOM belongs to all four services at once. Gold on black and nothing else, so it reads from across a room.

For people who worked at the headquarters in Tampa or at a theater special operations command, this is the patch of the place where joint plans came together. For the operator downrange it was the chain that tied a Ranger platoon, a SEAL element, a Night Stalker crew and an Air Force combat controller into one plan. The lesson of Desert One was that brave men from four services had to train, fly and fight as one force, and SOCOM exists to make sure they do. Panama in 1989, Mogadishu in 1993, Afghanistan, Iraq and Abbottabad all ran through that structure. Wearing it says you were part of the whole enterprise, whatever your service.

It belongs at the top of a shadow box of SOF unit patches, or on a jacket or range bag. It is iron-on backed and can also be sewn on. For a son or daughter heading into selection, it is the patch of the command they are trying to join. Small, gold and quiet, the way the community likes it.