I served in the US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) for a couple of decades, and two of my assignments were with a Special Mission Unit. My particular team was known as a “Whiskey Nine” detachment, meaning we were both Combat Divers and Military Freefall Parachutists. Back in the day, we weren’t authorized to discuss or wear anything that singled us out.
Now that we’re all senior citizens, we figured it was time for “showing our colors”…
So I combined the Army Military Freefall Wings with the Army Combat Diver Badge; and voila! Hopefully, the rest of the guys will like it!
The obligatory banana is included to show the scale.
In addition to being impressed with your service, I thank you for it. Must be a great feeling to finally get to ‘observe’ your special group of Special Forces. Very nice design.
Xabbess: The greater feeling is having all our teammates come through alive and in one piece; forty years later we can now lean back and reminisce with our “fish stories”.
Thank you for your service, from one vet to another. Sounds like you got to do 2 of the most fun things you can do in the Army , except for uh, you know. You didn’t jump in dive gear, did you? Cant imagine jumping with flippers on your feet…
djfb: Yes, I have done “para-scuba” jumps. Not pleasant, not fun, and will easily kill or cripple you if you don’t get everything right. It’s a very advanced technique that the divers and the flight crew have to get exactly right; because there’s very little margin for error.
This is such a great design, I’m sure your colleagues will love it. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to combine these two skills, on their own they are tough enough! You must all be hard as nails!
I can only imagine. I remember in ROTC Advanced camp we did this Rocky Ranger thing for a badge (I know, doesn’t EVEN compare) but we had to climb this ladder about 3 stories tall, cross a 50’ plank over the water, climb another 10’, grab the rope stretched across the water hazard, crawl to the middle, tap a sign, hang while spouting gibberish, and drop. The one thing they emphasized over and over was DON’T LOOK DOWN WHILE DROPPING! Because you’ll smash your face into the water and that would be no bueno. Sure enough, this one guy watched the water the whole way down and knocked himself out. So I can just imagine.
Was that dry or wet? I can;t imagine jumping in my Viking pro. It’s hard enough walking across the parking lot along with a steel-72 let alone flying through the air…
Yep, there are sharks in the Combat Diver’s Badge.
According to myth and legend, when the design for the dive badge was made, the ‘logic’ was that the Navy had SEALs, so the Army was going to have sharks. Some of our other dive teams were known as ‘Sharkmen’, so that may have played a role as well. I’m not sure why Big Army went with it.
yet over time contacts are lost. I would pay well to find some of them now.