Talk:Shoulder sleeve insignia

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Shouldn't this article be expanded? Patches like this are used almost universally in the military, not to mention in paramilitary and/or quasi-military organisations - Boy Scouts even. And patches are also used in fashion to represent tastes et. I think this should over all uses of fabric patches that are sewn on to garments, at an article name like patch (insignia), patch (clothing), patch (accessory), or something similar. ~Switch ^{t c g} 07:30, 11 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

BSA units have worn the "Council Shoulder Patch" universally since 1970. Prior to that, Scouters wore white on red Council names, Boy Scouts wore white on red Community strips, Cub Scouts wore yellow on navy, and Explorers and Sea Scouts wore white on navy (any maybe navy on white, not sure). These CSPs are not considered "insignia" in any way, and the title of this article is "United States Army" which has a pretty clear and heavily evidenced history and documentation. I am fairly confident that any other organization that uses shoulder patches, such as military, police, civic, et cetera, should merit a different article. 14:35, 21 December 2022 (UTC)

• Why is "Shoulder Sleeve Insignia" capitalized?
• "US Army" should be "United States Army"

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:21, 25 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I thought the USMC wore patches, at least up until some point in Vietnam. And deployed Navy definitely wear the First Navy Jack subdued shoulder patch on their ACUs in Afghanistan. Agree with some of the other posters here that this article, though having some good content, is awfully heavily US Army-centric. MatthewVanitas (talk) 14:46, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MV - The Marine Corps did indeed wear unit patches during WWII, but shoulder sleeve insignia for the Marine Corps ceased shortly after the war. Some units had patches in WWI - the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments and 6th Machine Gun Company of the US Army's 2nd Division. Within the 2nd Division, the white star and Indian head were common to all units. Subordinate commands within the division were identified by color and shape. For example, the SSI of 5th Marine Regiment was a square, while the 6th Marine Regiment used a diamond. Red, yellow and blue were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd battalions respectively. There are some great sites on the net for further information, including the US Army's Department of Heraldry. I hope this helps - Semper Fi. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.64.0.252 (talk) 22:59, 31 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

MERGE--S. Rich (talk) 14:11, 15 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

• Oppose - This article is about the subject in general, and the images in the proposed merged article do not fall under the other image galleries. --RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 15:26, 18 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's been a while since I've seen an article so over-whelmingly directed only to the US. No, what we in the UK call "shoulder flashes" are not only used in the US armed forces, or even solely in the armed forces (various police forces use them, for example).

It is a US article because SSI are specific to the US Army. The US Air Force, US Navy and Marines do not wear unit shoulder patches. The British equivalent is the Tactical recognition flash, which is linked through See also. --  Gadget850 ^talk 14:58, 2 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Also note this is a specific type of identification. Unit patch is different, as is Distinctive unit insignia. Perhaps a larger, international article on military unit symbolism would help, with sections for each national iteration. —Ed!^(talk) 18:48, 2 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Surely the broadest existing page is formation patch? FOARP (talk) 14:02, 7 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly, but it still deals with a specific subject. Perhaps Military heraldry would be good. Either way, formation patch is a good starting point. —Ed!^(talk) 21:20, 15 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Comment - The term 'shoulder sleeve insignia' is too generic for the article to be exclusively about U.S. military use. It doesn't matter if this is the official military jargon in the U.S. armed forces. It is also a generally descriptive term for the item in other uses; military and otherwise. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 23.91.227.152 (talk) 00:54, 30 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

"The Shoulder Sleeve Insignia Former Wartime Service will now be called the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia Military Operations in Hostile Conditions." [1] --

'"Full color" SSI were only worn on the brown service coat during the 1940s, and on the green "Class A" uniform and on the OG-107 during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Formerly, full color SSI were also worn on the "full color" (white letters on black or dark blue material) Military Police brassard, worn by MPs while wearing the green "Class A" service uniform or while wearing subdued field uniforms (BDU or DCU) in a garrison environment. However, with the ACU, the MP brassard was replaced by a rectangular patch made of fabric or infrared-reflective material, reading "MP". In one notable exception, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division wore full-color SSI on their BDUs and ACUs for a time, before that too was replaced with a subdued version.' 66.210.125.114 (talk) 14:31, 21 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]