AR theatre made Parachute wings
 

A set of wings that were reportedly made in-theatre in AR (arid region) colours. Unofficial as far as I am aware.

......and a seriously ugly maple leaf at that.
Jo

AR Wings
 

Yeah, there is quite a bit of that sort of thing being made in theatre. A lot of it gets sewn onto bags and things especially as in this case there is no spot on the CADPAT AR uniform to wear wings; and I doubt very much that their wear would be authorized in theatre.

Looks like an extremely rare wing that could cause much controversy. ;)

Phil

Agreed. But it is not so rare as to be secret.

Bill, we're not going to start that again are we? I don't mind telling you of course but nobody else.

That wing was made during one of the early rotations and I was told that it was made by an old fellow who used a "free hand" technique which is why a lot of the early theatre made stuff is so crude looking. Modern embroidery machines were brought in after that and the quality improved drastically.

Oh, and some of this stuff was worn even though it was not technically approved. In fact the person that had these wings made was also one of the first (if not the first) person to add pockets to his sleeves. As an officer he got away with more than the average soldier would have.

In the photo below you will note that the two army name tags have pencil marks that aided in aligning the letters when the person doing the embroidery "free handed" the letters. In contrast, the air force tag on the bottom was made in 2008 on proper embroidery machinery. Even so, the eagle is still rather poorly depicted.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...ion%20005a.jpg

Hi Steve, Interesting badges. Was the PPCLI worn in theatre?

I think so Bill but I'm checking into it. I've asked my buddy if he has any photos that he can share showing this stuff being worn. Keep in mind that some of these types of patches might have been worn at the section level or even by only one or two guys. As far as authenticating items in the future I think the early made stuff will be easier to spot based on it's quality, or lack of that is.

I have friends with UK forces out there and several have had insignia made up in the local markets, some of it not regulation but I think they can get away with a lot in the field, like this improvised camo.....