Afghanistan Roto Patches

[edstorey]

It depends on how you define the term 'authorized'. First of all you have the military insignia which is produced and paid for by the Crown to be worn on the uniform. This insignia is authorized for wear by the CF and is usually well documented.

You also have the mass of Task Force and unit procured insignia which was not financed from public funds but had been authorized for wear by either the Task Force or unit commanders. As Bill has stated, there were various degrees of design, control and documentation of this material which unfortunately will be an ongoing problem when trying to catalogue or authenticate individual pieces.

There was Allied and coalition insignia which was also authorized for wear, and again this is a grey area were there is little documentation as to what was worn.

The combinations of insignia worn by Canadians in SWA is both interesting and confusing. I doubt if anyone has the total picture on the diverse types of insignia that was worn in theatre but one thing that we all have to remember but could pose a problem for those collectors who have never served in the military; and this is that when in theatre you could not wear whatever insgnia you wanted or have any insignia made up for wear. There were controls although these controls were less rigid then when back in Canada.

[Pylon1357]

Originally Posted by Bill A

Recently acquired these Canadian Afghanistan deployment "souvenir" patches.
Both were identified as being worn on Roto 3-06. Made up on the Boardwalk, Kandahar.

Bill these souvenir patches were sold in the German PX. They also sold many different t-shirts ect. The "Taliban Hillfighter" T-shirt and "Major Leauge Infidel" were big sellers, but deemed rasist or some such but KAFCOM HQ and were pulled from the shelves.

I posted this before reading though the whole topic. I have left my post here as it does have a tad of information regarding the T-Shirts Ed mentioned above.

[servicepub]

Update to my earlier post.

Gen John Vance with Capt Richard Law. Note the patch on Vance's sleeve.

[Pylon1357]

All I can say is....LOVE IT. I actually liked Vance. Not like some of the other Upper ups.

[mikeninercharlie]

Probably one of the rarest patches from my tour, only the Padres x 4 and members of the "Padre's Posse" x 3 wore/were awarded the patch.

[Pylon1357]

Originally Posted by mikeninercharlie

Probably one of the rarest patches from my tour, only the Padres x 4 and members of the "Padre's Posse" x 3 wore/were awarded the patch.

WOW that one great. I got to KAF in December 08, but never paid much attention to patches and the like for the first few months. I just kept rolling over in my mind, "What the heck was I thinking" then I just took day by day. Had a grand time overall. Such was the life of a civiy in KAF.