National Guard Patch
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 NATIONAL GUARD ARMY MILITARY PATCHES NG49 $3.99 Time Remaining: 4h 44m Buy It Now for only: $5.00 |
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 New York State Guard Patch $4.00 Time Remaining: 5d 12h 10m |
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 Ohio National Guard patch FULL COLOR OHNG OH US Army $4.95 Time Remaining: 27d 10h 14m Buy It Now for only: $4.95 |
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 MASSACHUSETTS NATIONAL GUARD PATCH SUBDUED $5.25 Time Remaining: 7d 22h 49m Buy It Now for only: $5.25 |
 112th Tactical Fighter Group Pennsylvania Air National Guard Patch $14.00 Time Remaining: 1d 7h 54m |
 USAF 30th MILITARY AIRLIFT SQ PATCH Y 1 COLOR $5.99 Time Remaining: 4h 44m Buy It Now for only: $5.99 |
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 MAINE NATIONAL GUARD PATCH $5.75 Time Remaining: 20d 19h 5m Buy It Now for only: $5.75 |
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 VERMONT NATIONAL GUARD OLD PATCH $5.75 Time Remaining: 21d 16h 5m Buy It Now for only: $5.75 |
 Early pre 1964 U S Army Utah National Guard shoulder patch from NS Meyer $19.50 Time Remaining: 16d 12h 25m Buy It Now for only: $19.50 |
 190th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron Idaho Air National Guard Patch $11.00 Time Remaining: 2d 6h 43m |
 SOUTH CAROLINA NATIONAL GUARD PATCH SUBDUED $5.25 Time Remaining: 20d 19h 38m Buy It Now for only: $5.25 |
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 36th TAC FTR WNG PATCH $7.00 Time Remaining: 7d 10h 28m Buy It Now for only: $7.00 |
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 Kansas Air National Guard F 4 Phantom patch $10.00 Time Remaining: 4d 21h 3m |
 USAF 20th FIGHTER WING DESERT PATCH L 1 $6.95 Time Remaining: 19d 3h 43m Buy It Now for only: $6.95 |
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 USAF 174th TACTICAL FIGHTER WING PATCH A 2 UNUSED $5.99 Time Remaining: 20d 46m Buy It Now for only: $5.99 |
 NEVADA NATIONAL GUARD PATCH desert $7.75 Time Remaining: 13d 9h 1m Buy It Now for only: $7.75 |
 RF 4C Phantom 155th TRG Nebraska Air National Guard Hustlin Huskers patch $10.00 Time Remaining: 4d 21h 8m |
 USAF 354th FIGHTER WING VALOR IN COMBAT PATCH W 1 $4.99 Time Remaining: 22d 3h 53m Buy It Now for only: $4.99 |
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 USAF 49th FIGHTER WING PATCH J 1 $4.95 Time Remaining: 16d 21h 54m Buy It Now for only: $4.95 |
 ORIGINAL VINTAGE NICARAGUA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD PATCH $9.95 Time Remaining: 18d 3h 28m Buy It Now for only: $9.95 |
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Massachusetts National Guard ACU Patch - Foliage Green
Sale Price: $6.50  |
DescriptionMassachusetts National Guard ACU Patch - Foliage Green |
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Massachusetts National Guard Full Color Dress Patch
Sale Price: $5.00 |
DescriptionMassachusetts National Guard Full Color Dress Patch |
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Minnesota National Guard ACU Patch - Foliage Green
Sale Price: $6.50 |
DescriptionMinnesota National Guard ACU Patch - Foliage Green |
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United States Army National Guard Professional Unit Crest Patch Decal Sticker 3.8"
Sale Price: $4.49 |
DescriptionThis United States Army National Guard Professional Unit Crest Patch Decal Sticker is a MilitaryBest.com exclusive made in Scottsboro, AL. Many of our customers refer to our stickers as high quality transfers, we think of them as the best stickers available... |
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U.S. Army Heraldic Crests: A Complete Illustrated History of Authorized Distinctive Unit Insignia
Sale Price: $310.00 |
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American Military Patch Guide: Army, Army Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, Civil Air Patrol, National Guard
Sale Price: $27.49 |
Description8 x 11 & The single most complete source on United States military patches. Color plates illustrate and identify more than 2,000 patches and tabs, from World War II to the present. Promises to become the definitive work on U... |
Dickies at Work The Conservation Corps
As a young lad, I looked around before starting on my career track, thinking before I settled down, this was the time to get my world legs on. Do a stint in the military? It was peacetime (shows how long ago this was?) and doing National Guard just to say you did it seemed kind of a mediocre choice. Join the Peace Corps and do a stint in another country? Maybe, but that seemed like a slightly deeper commitment, and anyway what if I didn't like the politics? I ended up midway between and went for the California Conservation Corps, also known as the CCC.
On the whole, it seemed just right. I was still out in time to start a career, did some work for my country, got to travel all over the state and see practically every acre of forest land it had, and even got to roll on a couple of forest fires. It was half vacation and half job, with the occasional dash of adventure. My second year I buckled down and got some career training started anyway.
The Corps dresses it's members in such a way that they cannot forget they're in a program started during the "New Deal" in a democratic society. All uniforms are Dickies, brown pants with tan shirts, all the way through the ranks, with only colored hats as the sole sign of rank. The ranks by hat colors run blue, green, red, yellow, orange, white, and black. There's only one "honorary" black hat, and a white hat is a center director.
The California Conservation Corps works closely with other state departments such as the California Department of Forestry and Caltrans. If you visit Yosemite and take a trail up a mountain, chances are good that a CCC crew cut that trail. Or if you notice that a dirt hill that was eroding is now sprouting shoots that help retain the landscape, that might have been some CCC handiwork. The CCC also does the biggest part of disaster relief when needed, responding to floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and forest fires. If you've heard of "smoke-jumpers" who go into a forest fire by helicopter to fight it, those are also usually recruited from the CCC's ranks.
By itself, the CCC is a good leg up in a career of civil service for the State government. It also offers job training in a variety of fields, and some paid college while attending. It's a good pit stop for the very young adult, wishing to get some adventure in before settling down to the car loans and mortgages of the suburban life.
Which isn't to say it's fantastic. A sizable proportion of those who join are screw-ups, but they sort themselves out after a month. The conditions are rugged, particularly in the back-country projects where you're off in a camp without any contact from the outside world for months at a time. The pay… hey, I said I deliberated between this and the Peace Corps, right? Whatever you do, don't do this job for the money.
The Dickie uniforms. Do it for them. No, but anyway about the uniforms, you sew patches on the sleeves for whatever center or department you're with. That's the other distinguishing feature. You keep these patches around even after you've tossed the uniforms. With your other keepsakes, like the pictures and the work gloves and the T-shirt they sold you at the fire camp.
Fire camp! See, fighting forest fires is largely a matter of depriving them of fuel. So you go around the fire and cut line. If you're lucky and the wind is right, you got the line to go all around the fire and it dies out. If it got away, you have to cut more line around where it is now. If you think a crew of people armed with axes chopping their way through a tall pine forest for a ten mile radius are no match for a fire moving through the trees at the speed of wind, you're right. It's impossible. And every fire ends just that way: we accomplish the impossible and kill the fire.
The planes and helicopters make "air drops", bucket dumps of slurry on the fire to retard the flames. This is a strategic attempt to douse just one area at the perimeter of the fire; the equivalent of attacking a house fire with a thimble full of water in an attempt to hold it back one second until you can close the door. These are called in by radio. Even if we had one hundred of these, they couldn't put out the fire by themselves. Largely they douse an area to keep it from catching.
This would be difficult enough on flat ground. But forest fires often happen on mountainous terrain. Hills and gullies have to be navigated, often where trucks can't go. Fires like to rush up hills and devour the trees there, then creep down into the next valley. Get too far from the fire and you'll never catch up. Get to close and, well, you got to close to a fire. The fire camp goes for days like this, moving and fighting, sixteen hour shifts of exhausting labor in the woods, plopping back unconscious at camp and waking up and the first thing you ask is "Where is it?" You get an answer something like "Three-thirty, heading east, 60% contained." And that's enough to get you running to catch up again. Sixty percent isn't anything. Sixty percent means you're failing.
After the fire's out, there's the cleanup. Going back to retrieve equipment, put out hot spots, and knock down snags. The area freshly burned from the fire might as well be on another planet. No noise, no birds. Hazy gray sunshine through smoke. Black spikes that are all that's left of trees, some still standing. Knee-deep ash everywhere. Hot spots; sometimes when a tree burns, the root stay on fire for a few days afterward, burning away deep in the ground, and these are hot spots. They look like miniature volcanoes in the ash, with a plume of smoke within.
But then you visit town when the fire's over, and make a stop for supplies on the way home. The town, nestled amongst the woods, was saved. The people of the town greet you like heroes, even if your role in the fire fighting wasn't that major. They recognize you, the distinctive brown and tan Dickie uniforms with the ash and smoke streaks on them mark you as one of the crew. Little else distinguishes you after you lift the goggles from your eyes and there's so much ash on your face that the goggles left an impression. The Conservation Corps is democratic, it does not matter who outranks who. There is no rank then, only team.
About the Author
Freelance writer for over eleven years.
PC93 1-Aug-2010 National Guard Patch Boards