Drodding about the internet helped me happen upon the image you see above this sentence. It is a high-quality patch made in the real world reflecting the alternate-reality depicted in the 1986 story “Watchmen.*” This patch is presented by The New Frontiersman Watchmen fangroup, made by the people who were in charge of promoting the 2009 Watchmen movie, I’m pretty sure. Inspired heavily by this excellent manifestation of what was and what wasn’t, I went on a hunt for other, more “real” patches from the Vietnam war, as worn by the real soldiers on either side of the conflict.

*Watchmen was originally created as a 12-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins in 1986 and 1987. In 2009, a film was made of the series, directed by Zack Snyder and overly-promoted by Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures with books and action figures and all that fun stuff.

But this post is all about the patches! And not the Watchmen patch so much as the inspiration for that patch, the patches of Vietnam. Ten examples of Vietnam War patches are shown and described below, followed by a gallery of all kinds of patches from all along the timeline of the war, from all kinds of companies.

Such lovely stitchings.

Several of the patches below are from the same galleries of photos. The following list shows every gallery these images are from along a description of one of the patches: Flying Death (heart) USM forum, Grim Reaper ace of spaces Dive Patch, Nurses Haven Flying Tigers Surplus, 1st Cav Grunts, 1st Cav Deck Landscaper, Hatchet Team Worthpoint, PRU Strike Force 7 (ebay seller), Screaming Eagles Colin MacGregor, and USS Kitty Hawk NavySite.

1. One of the few non-American patches in this collection is this district militia patch from South Vietnam. Look at that lovely blue! Look at those soldiers with their hats!

2. Recon Wyoming has such a harsh message that you’d almost think it was done in jest: “KILL FOR PEACE” it says on one side, “NEVER RETREAT” on the other.

3. An excellent example of an insane skull. This sort of rudimentary skull… with fangs… struck FEAR into the nightmare hearts of not only the enemy, but the bunny rabbits, the fish, the locals, the air, the water, everything. Holy crap look at those fangs.

4. Bravo Bears! Such a distorted vision from the MeKong Delta!

5. The completely bad-ass 101st Division’s First Brigade were deployed to Vietnam in 1965. They wore a huge assortment of these “chicken patches,” assorted because they were made by such a variety of producers, “pro” and totally amateur. Four examples are here, 1968-72. Check out an extended story on the chicken patch at 101A.

6. The 7th Infantry Division Scout Dog Platoon is orange and black. Reddish orange. Like it’s on fire, dangerous and toxic. Simple. Triangular.

7. West Virginia CCC Ace of Spades Reaper Skull reminds a fellow of the scene in Apocalypse Now where Colonel Bill Kilgore tosses death cards on the bodies of his dead and defeated opponents. This happened in the real war as far as I know too, this being companies of soldiers having their own brand of playing cards which they’d toss on bodies, showing the enemy who killed their comrades. Terrifying. Here’s a patch along those lines.

8. Da Nang 282nd AHC Alleycats. Look at that cat. It has a large, powerful gun that it’s going to use to kill the hell out of everything, everywhere. Also, he MIGHT be on a rocket which will propel him straight on to victory.

9. Photo Recon RRU – FAC Mosquito. Photo spy time! According to the auction listing for this patch, it’s unfinished, so this design might never have ended up being used in the war, but you can see the style similarities in the weirdo animal illustration.

10. The 584 Engineer Company, Cam Tanh Bay Vietnam, WOOLY BULLIES. That’s what’s to be scared of. These triangle warriors, holy crap. I doubt they were ever defeated, even a one of them. Look at them! Wooly Bullies! They danced to Sam the Sham. Clearly.

Now look at this collection of patches. There’s so many of them. This is only a small sampling of the whole worldly batch because of the awesome nature of the situation.

End war.

Patches forever.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies collection category.