USASOAC 160th SOAR Night Stalkers Special Operations Aviation Patch

The red wings on this patch sweep upward around a black Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife, and together they form a spearhead, an echo of the 1st Special Service Force of World War II. This is the shoulder patch of the US Army Special Operations Aviation Command, USASOAC. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), the Night Stalkers, put it on at a ceremony at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on 1 October 2013. Col. John R. Evans, the regimental commander, said it was the first patch that reflected the regiment's own identity as an aviation special operations force. The regiment's lineage runs through four shoulder patches: the 101st Airborne Division, 1st Special Operations Command, US Army Special Operations Command and now USASOAC.

The Night Stalkers grew out of Task Force 160, stood up at Fort Campbell in 1981 to give special operations forces dedicated helicopter crews who could fly low, at night and on time. The regiment flies the MH-60 Black Hawk, the MH-47 Chinook and the MH-6 and AH-6 Little Birds. Its crews flew into Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury in 1983 and into Mogadishu in October 1993, where the Black Hawks Super Six-One and Super Six-Four went down. In May 2011 they carried the assault force to Abbottabad on Operation Neptune Spear. The spearhead on the patch says what the regiment is, the aviation element of US Army Special Operations Command.

It is a shield, 2.5 by 3.5 inches, with a black merrowed edge. A black arc across the top carries AIRBORNE in red block letters, stitched as part of the patch. Below it the field is royal blue, and the red wings rise from the bottom on both sides of the knife, curling up and in until their tips frame the point of the blade. The black Fairbairn-Sykes runs straight down the center, the double-edged commando dagger of World War II. Red, blue and black, with one word to read.

Night Stalker crews are known across special operations for getting the assault force to the objective in the dark, on schedule, and coming back for it. A ground force commander who has heard rotors at the planned minute does not forget it. The regiment has paid for that reputation with crews lost in training and in combat, and it carries their names with it. Their motto is three words that every crew chief and pilot knows: Night Stalkers Don't Quit. This patch is the one they have worn on the shoulder since 2013.

It belongs in a shadow box with your aircrew wings and other Night Stalker patches, or on a flight jacket or range bag. It is iron-on backed and can also be sewn on. For a son or daughter heading to Fort Campbell, it shows where the regiment came from and what it carries forward. NSDQ.