Weird military/government program patches

[Deadweasel]

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[TR]

[TD]Also just found this one, which I have seen in person a couple of times:

This patch is from the Operations Group at Groom Lake. The collection of five white stars and one purple star is a reference to Groom Lake's nickname, "Area 51," and here represents the Special Projects Flight Test Squadron.

The color purple echoes the colors of the Special Projects Flight Test Squadron patch.

The wrench and screwdriver are symbols for aircraft maintenance units and activities.

There is also a red star in the bird's eye, which may reference classified squadrons such as the "Red Hats" and "Red Eagles," which were charged with flying purloined Soviet MiGs.

Green footprints on the cloud symbolize the "Ghost Squadron" search and rescue team.

EDIT: Because I forgot to call out the interesting cross-reference here.

Green footprints are used for the Ghost Squadron, because their primary aircraft is the MH-53 Pave Low, known as the "Super Jolly Green Giant".

Lightning coming from the cloud spells out the letters "EW" for "electronic warfare" and represents EW test units and activities at the base.

The red-and-white and blue-and-white streamers on either side of the bird reference the colors of the JANET planes (Joint Air Force/Navy Employee Transport).

Penser hors limites is French for "Imagination without boundaries," or "To think beyond the boundaries."

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The JANET planes themselves are still very active here. There are at least eight regular in- and out-bound flights every day, which indicates Groom Lake is still very active, even though it has been ostensibly decommissioned as an active testing base.

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In related news, I just ran across an article that seems to confirm that Area 51 is still in use as an active testing facility:

(from: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/revealed-us-new-super-spy-plane-hiding-in-this-secret-1478040067)

Very interesting! I'd love to see the mission patch for that one!

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Edited December 7, 2013 by Deadweasel

[Idobox]

While grammatically correct, the French sentence sounds weird, probably not written by a native speaker.

I can understand why they would use Latin or Greek, as they are classic languages. Any idea why they would use French? It's not like they're 17th century European royalty or big fans of Sartre.

Given the flag colors, and that the bird is definitely not a bald eagle, my first thought was the French also had weird mission patches. Any chance the US shares information with France, or even has some kind of joint project at Groom Lake?

[Tech Support]

"never before, never again", that's scary, what on earth did they do ?

[Deadweasel]

"never before, never again", that's scary, what on earth did they do ?

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[TR]

[TD]Nobody knows what it could possibly refer to, though I have a theory.

The patch is associated with a program from the National Reconnaissance Office (big-time spy agency, answerable only to the NSA), which was formed in part as a response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor (much like the TSA we Americans know today grew from 9/11). Given this possible connection, it's possible this was the NRO's very first satellite deployment, designed to improve the nation's ability to protect its borders and detect incoming threats.

Indeed, the story of Kermit A. Tyler isn't spread very wide, but it's well known among war historians.

(from http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/24/local/la-me-kermit-tyler25-2010feb25):

Tyler was the Army Air Forces' first lieutenant on temporary duty at Ft. Shafter's radar information center on the morning of Dec. 7, when a radar operator on the northern tip of the island reported that he and another private were seeing an unusually large "blip" on their radar screen, indicating a large number of aircraft about 132 miles away and fast approaching.

"Don't worry about it," Tyler told the radar operator, thinking it was a flight of U.S. B-17 bombers that was due in from the mainland.

Instead, the blip on the radar screen was the first wave of more than 180 Japanese fighters, torpedo bombers, dive bombers and horizontal bombers whose surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the island's main airfields shortly before 8 a.m. plunged the United States into World War II.

The Japanese assault was able to proceed because the radar technology of the time didn't offer enough information about the things it detected.

So basically, "Never before, never again" may very well be in direct reference to Pearl Harbor, which leads me to believe the patch is associated with the NRO's very first orbital deployment, though of course those missions are all heavily classified, so we can only guess.

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Meanwhile, moar patches!

Love this one

What do the letters at the bottom mean? None of your ********** business. Seriously, that's what they stand for. (!!)

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This patch for NROL-49 depicts a phoenix rising from the flames with the flag of the United States in the background. The Latin words “Melior Diabolus Quem Scies†roughly translates to mean “The Devil You Know,†as in the phrase “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t knowâ€Â. Cryptic.

According to NASA, this saying refers to the return of the use of an old system after attempting to use a new one, which had resulted in failure.

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The PAN satellite was launched in September 2009 and is so top-secret that no military or governmental organization claimed to have built it.

“A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket has launched with PAN, a classified satellite which will be operated by the US Government. The launch was on time, at the start of a two hour, nine minute launch window which opened at 21:35 GMT (17:35 local time). Unusually for an American government satellite, the agency responsible for operating the spacecraft has not been disclosed.â€Â

- Nasa Space Flight

According to the patch, PAN stands for “Palladium at Nightâ€Â, Palladium being a silvery-white metallic element that is probably present in the satellite. The mission is so secret, however, that it is jokingly said that the name PAN actually stands for “Pick a Name†(notice the subtle question mark underneath the rocket on the patch).

PAN is also the name of an ancient horned god important in occultism and that has a strange link with the history of rocket science in the United States.

Jack Parsons, a pioneer in American space propulsion who is often credited for having “propelled†the United States into the space age (a crater of the moon is named in his honor), was also a notorious occultist. He was a prominent member of the Ordo Templi Orienti (the O.T.O.), an occult secret society popularized by Aleister Crowley. Seeing no separation between his professional and his occult work, Parsons was known to chant Crowley’s poem entitled Hymn to Pan before each test rocket launch.

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Now for some fun stuff, highlighting just how awesome/geeky NASA folks really can be!

NASA hasn’t shied away from using well-known figures on its patches in recent years. In 2003, Daffy Duck and Marvin Martian made appearances on two patches for Mars Exploration Rover missions.

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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were featured on a patch for the Multi-Purpose Logistics Model of the International Space Station.

Why?

Three of the four modules of the MPLM shared their names with the famous “heroes in a half shell.â€Â

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And one more from a PSYOPS program, its origins either coincidentally geeky, or downright creepy

A giant angry dragon clutching the planet, bringing destruction from space. That’s a nice way to symbolize space missions.

In PSYOPS symbolism, dragons typically represent signals-intelligence satellite launches; the dragons’ wing patterns symbolize the satellites’ massive gold-foil dish antennae meant to collect all types of information from earth.

The phrase “Omnis Vestri Substructio Es Servus Ad Nobis†can loosely be translated to “All your base are servant to usâ€Â. This phrase does not make much sense, except that it vaguely states that the world is owned by those who made that patch.

But this phrase is also reminiscent of a geeky 2002 Internet meme.

If you're not familiar with the "All your base" mania, do a Google search for "Zero Wing All Your Base", and you'll have your answer in short order.

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Edited December 10, 2013 by Deadweasel

[rdfox]

A couple side notes...

First off, the unit patch for EVERY "Wild Weasel" (air defense suppression) squadron in the US Air Force includes the letters "Y.G.B.S.M." on it somewhere. That's because of the legendary response of the first crew to ever be briefed for a Wild Weasel mission. See, air defense suppression means that you go out there and actively try to taunt the enemy ground-based air defenses into engaging you, so you can locate and destroy them. When the first pilots were briefed for the first-ever Wild Weasel mission back in Vietnam, one of them just stared at his commanding officer and said, "You've GOTTA be s**tting me," in relation to the thought of actively trying to get the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles to try and attack him. That ended up becoming the semi-official motto of the Wild Weasels, and enshrined, in abbreviated form, on their unit patches.

Secondly, every USAF primary flight training class at Lackland AFB gets to design its own class patch which is to be worn on the flight suit until completing the course, and then kept as a souvenir. Earlier this year, one class elected (and I hesitate to mention this lest flames result) to design a patch I won't link to directly, but themed around the motto, "My Little Pilot: Flying is Magic."

Yeah.

You can guess what it looked like...

[W Wiench]

I am looking for a warp speed  C19 patch can you help