Looking through a catalog of modern and historic military patches, it's sometimes difficult to discern some of the symbolism and what it means. To the untrained eye it may appear that the world of the military is so exclusive popular culture has no effect on patch design. But nothing could be further from the truth. Evidence of culture's influence on military patches can be clearly seen in story that just hit the news wires recently.
The story comes from the Pentagon, where the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office removed a reference to "God" from its unit patch. Prior to the removal there was a Latin phrase which, when translated into English, read: "Doing God's Work with Other People's Money." After, an unhappy atheist group complained the Air Force replaced "God's Work" with the word "Miracles." Like it or not, the increasingly anti-religious attitude pervading American pop culture is having an influence everywhere you look - including military patches.
Some find this offensive, others are rabidly in favor, still others will never know anything about it and probably wouldn't care if they did. Yet the ability of pop culture to affect all sorts of things is fairly evident. Even among embroidered biker patches that have nothing to do with the military, pop culture is all over the place. For example, you might find slogan patches expressing such sentiments as "Who's your Daddy?" or "Do I look like someone who cares?" There are embroidered patches with advertising slogans, popular graphic images, and all sorts of other things easily recognizable by every American.
Next time you're looking through your favorite catalog of military patches, keep your eye out for words and symbols that might be the result of cultural influences. They add a whole new meaning to patch collecting and display.
