1st CAV celebrates Army’s birthday with combat patch

Photo By Sgt. Kimberly Browne | At a ceremony held for the Army’s 236th Birthday and the placing of the division’s combat patch, June 14, the 1st Cavalry Division’s Color Guard renders honors to the Nation’s colors on Bagram Air Field.  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

06.14.2011

Story by Sgt. Kimberly Browne 

Combined Joint Task Force 1 - Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – More than eighty years after the formal activation of the 1st Cavalry Division, America’s First Team chalked up another first.

June 14 marked the United States Army’s 236th birthday and also set the thirty day mark for the first heavy armored division in Afghanistan.

Throughout the Army, soldiers wear a unit designator known as a patch on their left sleeve. Those that have spent time on a combat deployment will don that patch on their right sleeve. However, this ceremony was not only for division troopers; the cavarly also inducted sister service members along with French, Polish and Canadian partners as 1st Cavalry Division combat veterans.

“For some of us this is the first opportunity to emblazon our right shoulder with a combat patch,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Dan Allyn, commander of Regional Command-East. “For others, the 1st Cavalry Division patch will respectfully replace a patch earned on another battlefield amongst friends and comrades from another time.”

Over 300 service members stood at attention for the biggest patch in the Army on their right shoulder.

“From Luzon to Pusan to Khe Sanh to Baghdad and now Bagram… Every soldier standing in formation today is now a part of that storied history,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeremy Siegrist, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Cav. Div.

Colonel and Mrs. Dorcy, then with the 7th Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas, designed the patch in 1921. Seeing a trooper riding his mount at sunset gave the patch its bright yellow color and the thoroughbred the trooper was riding gave the patch its blue-black outside color. The blue was later replaced by black to symbolize iron and armor. The black stripe, termed a "Sable Bend", represents a "baldric" (a standard Army issue belt worn over the right shoulder to the opposite hip - sometimes referred to as a "Sam Browne belt") which retains either a casing which sheaths the trooper's saber or revolver holster.

“Today is the first time the Baldric, Shield and Horse’s head will be awarded for combat service in Afghanistan,” Allyn said. “Wear it with pride, cavalry troopers!”

With their new cavalry combat patch firmly in place, service members within ears reach were talked about the pride in donning the 1st Cavalry Division’s patch as a combat patch.

“It was a great honor to be a part of this ceremony,” said U. S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Charlie Davis. “To be commander of troops and lead a unique formation of soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines was an honor.”

• Date Taken: 06.14.2011
• Date Posted: 06.15.2011 09:58
• Story ID: 72111
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF