The Best of Squadron Patches

[Rick-DEL]

Here's ours...

[Texas Raiders]

Here's the new patch from the 399th Comp. Squadron of Danbury, Connecticut.  Danbury was once the hat capitol of the US, hence the significance of the top hat.  The squadron's nickname is "Yankee Hatters". 

[Private Investigator]

Note:  I AM NOT ATTEMPTING TO CHANGE MY SQUADRON PATCH, I AM JUST INQUIRING.

Since this was posted, is there a regulation on squadron patches as far as shape and other requirements?

The patch much squadron has right now was created in 1991 by me and another cadet.  It is in the shape of a shield, and if this isn't the correct style/shape, I wouldn't be opposed to altering it a bit.  Maybe keep the same designs/colors/words, but change the shape.



I'm thinking we may want to shift to this style:


From this style:

I too like the disc with arcs especially for a Squadron.

My current Squadron brought up the topic but they wanted to bedazzle some nonsense. I thought it was the Cadets but it is some of the thirtysomething non Veteran types who wanted a "$100 bill, a cheeseburger and skull & crossbones" for their "Top Gun" fantasy.

[Devil Doc]

http://www.incountry.us/cappatches/NC/index.html

I am with NC-162, SAR Devils!! I think it is Pretty Cool. Also look at NC-082, I think it is neat.

http://www.doubledeuces.org/

This patch, I think is the best out of all of them.

[tarheel gumby]

Shelby & Asheville have good patches as well. Most of the new patches in NCWG look really sharp.

[Devil Doc]

Ya, im glad were getting cool patches.

[Private Investigator]

Ya, im glad were getting cool patches.

Patches are usually designed by the Cadets and Senior Members. You have a great patch you recognize the people who did the great work. You have a childish or sloppy patch the Unit Commander is to blame for that.

[Ratatouille]

Here is ours, the Lt. Anthony L. Willsea Cadet Squadron (NY-422), based at Westchester County Airport (HPN):



We made sure to include Long Island in our map 

[MisterCD]

Here's all the squadron insignia from the Ohio Wing, if anyone wishes to look through them:
http://www.ohwg.cap.gov/wing-historian/updatedohiowingheraldrybook

[Luis R. Ramos]

Rata-

If you are at Westchester Airport, the patch should have been that of Westchester County, not the entire New York.

You should also have used the suggested Heraldic standards: that shape is for Groups, not squadrons. Squadrons use circles.

Read again the original post. This person was asking for well-designed patches that met USAF Heraldic standards. Along the way, responders forgot there were two conditions and are posting patches that do not meet USAF Heraldic standards.

Flyer

[G+10]

http://www.doubledeuces.org/

This patch, I think is the best out of all of them.

I've heard of Cadet Squadrons, Composite Squadrons, heck even Senior Squadrons...

What the heck is a "SAR Squadron"?


update - Never mind, I see that they are a Composite Squadron

[Stonewall]

http://www.doubledeuces.org/

This patch, I think is the best out of all of them.

I've heard of Cadet Squadrons, Composite Squadrons, heck even Senior Squadrons...

What the heck is a "SAR Squadron"?

Exactly, which is why I want to change our unit's patch.  Our patch is purely for a "SAR Squadron", not a cadet/composite, or even a CAP squadron.  It says "XXX SEARCH AND RESCUE SQUADRON".

[Eclipse]

Rata-

If you are at Westchester Airport, the patch should have been that of Westchester County, not the entire New York.

You should also have used the suggested Heraldic standards: that shape is for Groups, not squadrons. Squadrons use circles.

Read again the original post. This person was asking for well-designed patches that met USAF Heraldic standards. Along the way, responders forgot there were two conditions and are posting patches that do not meet USAF Heraldic standards.

Flyer

There's other issues as well - text in the field (though I have violated that myself), not properly shaping the letters in the scroll, and I'm not sure that the state inside the
prop and triangle is proper, either.  Considering some wings will get into heated arguments over "why the tires are black" on an airplane, it's surprising that NHQ still
hasn't said anything officially on these matters.

Granted, lower then uniforms on the Grande Scale, but easily fixed and low-hanging fruit should always be picked up when you can.

[Ratatouille]

Rata-

If you are at Westchester Airport, the patch should have been that of Westchester County, not the entire New York.

You should also have used the suggested Heraldic standards: that shape is for Groups, not squadrons. Squadrons use circles.

Read again the original post. This person was asking for well-designed patches that met USAF Heraldic standards. Along the way, responders forgot there were two conditions and are posting patches that do not meet USAF Heraldic standards.

Flyer

There's other issues as well - text in the field (though I have violated that myself), not properly shaping the letters in the scroll, and I'm not sure that the state inside the
prop and triangle is proper, either.  Considering some wings will get into heated arguments over "why the tires are black" on an airplane, it's surprising that NHQ still
hasn't said anything officially on these matters.

Granted, lower then uniforms on the Grande Scale, but easily fixed and low-hanging fruit should always be picked up when you can.

We are based in Westchester, but our missions are not limited to Westchester. Heck, the vast majority of ES missions I have been on have been outside of Westchester County.

The text in the scroll does actually follow the curvature of the scroll. I did this in illustrator by cribbing an Air Force or CAP patch (I forgot) that was available directly from the AF as an Illustrator file, and the text path for that text matched the path of the scroll. I added extra spacing between the "N" and "Y" in "Anthony" because the end of the word fell right in the change in vector of the scroll and without the extra space the top of the Y intruded on the Y. This was something we debated within the Squadron and I obsessed with when designing this in Illustrator.

As for the map within the triangle, this was approved by NYWg, so it doesn't seem anyone had a problem with it. Plenty of NYWg patches modify the tri-prop. See, e.g., the patches for NY-048 (prop with no triangle, NY-118 (old red version with no-prop triangle), NY-189 (triangle in yellow), and NY-249 (shield patch), available here: http://www.incountry.us/cappatches/NY/index.htmld

[Eclipse]

We are based in Westchester, but our missions are not limited to Westchester.

You're confusing the role of a squadron with duties some of your members may participate in.  If your AOR is outside Westchester, you should change the name of the unit.

The text in the scroll does actually follow the curvature of the scroll. I did this in illustrator by cribbing an Air Force or CAP patch (I forgot) that was available directly from the AF as an Illustrator file, and the text path for that text matched the path of the scroll. I added extra spacing between the "N" and "Y" in "Anthony" because the end of the word fell right in the change in vector of the scroll and without the extra space the top of the Y intruded on the Y. This was something we debated within the Squadron and I obsessed with when designing this in Illustrator.

The letters near the lower point look like they were just dropped onto the page from 5ft off the desk.  They should have been shaped and skewed to match the shape of the scroll.  However had you adhered to the proper base shape, it wouldn't have been an issue, since you'd just be filling a rocker.

Citing a respective wing approved something doesn't mean it's proper.

[SarDragon]

http://www.doubledeuces.org/

This patch, I think is the best out of all of them.

I've heard of Cadet Squadrons, Composite Squadrons, heck even Senior Squadrons...

What the heck is a "SAR Squadron"?

Exactly, which is why I want to change our unit's patch.  Our patch is purely for a "SAR Squadron", not a cadet/composite, or even a CAP squadron.  It says "XXX SEARCH AND RESCUE SQUADRON".

Except that functional names like that are discouraged/prohibited by CAPR 20-3.

c. A proposed name for the unit. Unit names must include the following elements:
1) Identifying prefix - a short identifier, preferably associated with location (example: Shamrock, Dayton, Hot Springs, Midville, etc.). DO NOT use names such as "Black Sheep," "Flying Tigers," etc., or terms descriptive of major functions such as "Communications," "Jeep," or "Rescue," etc.
2) Type of unit (group, cadet squadron, senior squadron, composite squadron, or flight).

Older units were grandfathered in to a certain extent, but the trend is away from functional designations.

[Ratatouille]

We are based in Westchester, but our missions are not limited to Westchester.

You're confusing the role of a squadron with duties some of your members may participate in.  If your AOR is outside Westchester, you should change the name of the unit.

Following that logic, a map of Westchester would be inappropriate, since were we meet is in the Town-Village of Harrison. Of course, we don't actually have an AOR, so I guess it should really be an outline of the building we meet in.

The text in the scroll does actually follow the curvature of the scroll. I did this in illustrator by cribbing an Air Force or CAP patch (I forgot) that was available directly from the AF as an Illustrator file, and the text path for that text matched the path of the scroll. I added extra spacing between the "N" and "Y" in "Anthony" because the end of the word fell right in the change in vector of the scroll and without the extra space the top of the Y intruded on the Y. This was something we debated within the Squadron and I obsessed with when designing this in Illustrator.

The letters near the lower point look like they were just dropped onto the page from 5ft off the desk.  They should have been shaped and skewed to match the shape of the scroll.  However had you adhered to the proper base shape, it wouldn't have been an issue, since you'd just be filling a rocker.

Citing a respective wing approved something doesn't mean it's proper.

The Squadron's membership chose the shield shape out of several prototypes I made that included several circular designs as well. As a Commander I wanted the membership to be involved in the design of their patch, since a unit's insignia should be a reflection of the unit, not just the design whims of the Commander. They chose to go with a shield, and I am quite happy with that decision. Yes, it doesn't conform to USAF Heraldry regulations, but I challenge anyone to find me a CAP regulation that says we need to follow that USAF regulation.

Skewing individual letters is beyond my skills in Illustrator. I'm a lawyer, not a graphic designer. USAF has people on staff that do nothing but design and produce insignia all day. Unfortunately, my squadron doesn't have that. I will happily send you the Illustrator file if you think you can do a better job with the lettering. For the record, skewing of letters wouldn't even be noticeable on the embroidered patch, as you can see in the scanned patch below.

As for the modification of the propeller logo, again, find a regulation that says it is improper to modify the tri-prop logo or to come up with derivative logos.

[SarDragon]

For the scroll lettering, split the path into three parts - LT. ANTHON, Y, L. WILLSEA. Manipulate each path separately.

[Ratatouille]

We are based in Westchester, but our missions are not limited to Westchester.

You're confusing the role of a squadron with duties some of your members may participate in.  If your AOR is outside Westchester, you should change the name of the unit.

The text in the scroll does actually follow the curvature of the scroll. I did this in illustrator by cribbing an Air Force or CAP patch (I forgot) that was available directly from the AF as an Illustrator file, and the text path for that text matched the path of the scroll. I added extra spacing between the "N" and "Y" in "Anthony" because the end of the word fell right in the change in vector of the scroll and without the extra space the top of the Y intruded on the Y. This was something we debated within the Squadron and I obsessed with when designing this in Illustrator.

The letters near the lower point look like they were just dropped onto the page from 5ft off the desk.  They should have been shaped and skewed to match the shape of the scroll.  However had you adhered to the proper base shape, it wouldn't have been an issue, since you'd just be filling a rocker.

Citing a respective wing approved something doesn't mean it's proper.

It seems the USAF doesn't always have handy-dandy letter skewers available either. See, e.g., the CAP-USAF shield http://www.af.mil/art/mediagallery.asp?galleryID=5187, the Special Operations School or Combat Aircrew Tactics Training shields http://www.af.mil/art/mediagallery.asp?galleryID=5353 , or the AF Office of Special Investigations http://www.af.mil/art/mediagallery.asp?galleryID=5045&page=2.

So how exactly is a CAP Squadron, with barebones resources, supposed to follow "rules" that not even the USAF, with all their resources, always follow.

Rules are important, especially in CAP, but the rules we have are already hard enough to follow without us coming up with a bunch of unwritten ones that serve no purpose in getting our missions done.

[Ratatouille]

For the scroll lettering, split the path into three parts - LT. ANTHON, Y, L. WILLSEA. Manipulate each path separately.

The path was either already there from the original lettering, or (more likely), I simply made the text path follow the path of the bottom edge of the scroll. I am better at summoning the dead to rise from their graves than I am at manipulating paths (especially from scratch), and every time I tried messing with them, the design went all cablooyee. Heck, I had to send the file out to a friend just the change the color of the scroll because the patch I was cribbing off of (the CAP command shield, I think) had a white scroll, so the scroll itself was just the paths of the outer edges with no fill.