US Navy Electronics Technician ET Rating Embroidered Patch

Look at the two small flags under the atom: blue over red is Echo, and red, white and blue in vertical stripes is Tango, so this patch spells ET twice. The big white letters say it to everyone, and the signal flags say it to anyone who ever stood near a flag bag on the signal bridge. Between the letters sits the atom with its orbit, the mark Electronics Technicians wear on their rating badge. The rate began in World War II and grew into one of the broadest technical jobs in the fleet. ETs kept the Navy's radios, radars and navigation gear working, at sea and ashore.

The rating started as Radio Technician in April 1942, became Electronic Technician's Mate in October 1945 and took the name Electronics Technician in 1948. In 1971 the Navy disestablished the Radarman rating and moved part of its sailors into ET, and on 1 October 1998 the Data Systems Technician rating was split between ET and Fire Controlman. ETs maintain and repair equipment for communications, long-range radar, detection and tracking, identification and navigation, and they calibrate the test equipment the rest of the ship relies on. On 3 November 2015 submarine ETs became ETR for communications and ETV for navigation, while nuclear-trained technicians became ETN. ET A School runs 22 weeks at Great Lakes, Illinois.

The patch is 4.5 inches wide and 3.25 inches tall, the curved-top rate shape with a gold arc across the top and bottom of a navy blue field. UNITED STATES NAVY is stitched in blue on the upper arc and ELECTRONICS TECHNICIAN on the lower one. A large white E and T flank the white atom in the center, and the Echo and Tango flags sit just below it in red, white and blue. A blue merrowed edge rolls around the outside, and the backing is iron-on, so it can be pressed onto a jacket or sewn down.

The ET rate drew sailors who wanted to know what was inside the box. The work meant long hours in equipment spaces, schematics spread across a workbench and a radar or a radio coming back up on your watch, often before anyone else knew it had gone down. With the Radarman and Data Systems Technician mergers, plenty of ETs started their careers under another rating and finished as technicians. Wherever they served, surface ship, submarine or shore station, they were the ones the department called when the gear went quiet.

It fits a shadow box with service ribbons, a ship's patch and a chief's anchor, and it sits well on a vest at a ship's reunion. It is also a good gift for an ET's son or daughter who wants to carry something of a parent's service, or for a shipmate who still checks connections out of habit. Two letters and two flags, and every ET will catch both.