Thread by @18airbornecorps

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18th Airborne Corps Patch Week™️ continues. The first patch we're going to cover is this one.

The story of the 82nd Airborne Division patch is wrapped up in myth and misunderstood history. So, let's explain it.

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The story of this patch goes back to the summer of 1917. The 82nd Division (25 years before it was Airborne) formed on Camp Gordon, Georgia for WWI. The new division needed an insignia.

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This was the unit patch. What did this design mean? Nothing at all. This was simply the shipping label used to mark the 82nd Division's equipment on boats headed to France. Eben Swift, 1st Division commander, lazily appropriated this shipping label for the unit patch!

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Early 1918: General William Burnham (3rd Commander in 82nd history) wanted to give his unit a nickname before it left for France. He organized a contest through the newspaper the Atlanta Georgian soliciting names from the public. More than 5,000 names were submitted.

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Here are some of the nicknames submitted and seriously considered by Burnham: Blue Bird, Mother’s Pet, Mascot, The Singing Division, The Circular Saw (this one dates back to an old expression for a real tough guy: "he will fight against a circular saw.").

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Thankfully, Burnham settled on a nickname submitted by this woman, Vivienne Goodwyn, an Atlanta schoolteacher. Her submission: "All Americans."

Now, 82nd lore has it that "All Americans" comes from the fact that the division had Soldiers from all 48 states. Not true

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In Vivienne's own words: "All Americans is the perfect name because this new unit will carry the best characteristics from all American citizens."

[it's also not true that the 82nd had Soldiers from all US states at its inception].

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Just before the 82nd headed off to France in May, 1918, Burnham added the "AA" to the shipping label design.

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It wasn't until 1942 that the 82nd - reestablished as an airborne force - added the half moon tab, giving us the 82nd Airborne Division patch known throughout the world today.

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So the colors and the shape of the one of our Nation's most iconic military patches don't actually mean anything: they were simply the symbol placed on shipping containers used to mark the unit's equipment that was sent off by boat to France for WWI!!!