Utah Army National Guard 65th Field Artillery Brigade Patch

Look at the two dice on this patch: the one on the blue side shows six and the one on the red side shows five, and together they read 65. It is the shoulder sleeve insignia of the 65th Field Artillery Brigade of the Utah Army National Guard, a cannon and a lightning bolt crossed over a field split blue and red. The brigade was called the 65th Fires Brigade before taking its current name, and plenty of soldiers who wore it still call it that. Its headquarters is at Camp Williams in Riverton, Utah. The motto is America's Thunder, which is about right for a brigade built around cannon.

In Utah the brigade's firepower comes from the 1st Battalion, 145th Field Artillery Regiment at Spanish Fork and the 2nd Battalion, 222nd Field Artillery Regiment at Cedar City, both firing the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzer. The 190th Signal Company sits with brigade headquarters at Camp Williams. The brigade's lineup also reaches past Utah. The 340th Brigade Support Battalion and Battery F, 144th Field Artillery, a target acquisition battery, come from the California Army National Guard. It is a brigade headquarters built to plan and control fires for a much larger force.

The patch is 2.25 inches wide and 3 inches tall, a barrel-shaped shield with a black merrowed edge. The field is divided on the diagonal, blue on the upper left and scarlet, the artillery's color, on the lower right. A gold cannon barrel runs from the upper left corner down to the lower right, and a gold lightning bolt crosses it the other way. Where they meet sits a black disc ringed in white, with a white die on each side. It has a sew-on backing.

A brigade patch like this one goes on the left shoulder of every soldier assigned to it, from the gun crews and fire direction centers to the signal and support troops who keep the guns talking. The six and five on the dice are the kind of detail an outsider never notices and a soldier in the brigade points out to everyone. It is a Utah headquarters with a reach that runs well past the state line, into California. America's Thunder is a big motto, and the brigade carries it. Wearing this patch means you were part of that.

Put it in a shadow box with your crossed cannons, your battalion crest and your section photo, or on a range bag or jacket. It is a good gift for a Utah Guard artilleryman, past or present, or for the family of one who is deployed. Six and five, America's Thunder.