Patch Blog: The Secret World of Classified 'Patches'

A U.S. solider killed at least 16 Afghan civilians, including children, several months ago. He was alone and on the prowl. This was another devastating atrocity, certainly one of the most senseless, in a long list of senseless war atrocities against Americans, Afghans, Iraqis and anybody else within striking distance.

With U.S. wars “winding down” yet still raging in Afghanistan and Iraq, drone attacks in various other locations and top-secret initiatives around the world, I have a renewed appreciation for those military personnel who help us understand America’s secret wars and their classified projects. In a very diffrent way, they too are alone and on the prowl.

Trevor Paglen, an accomplished NYC artist and writer, is fascinated by the seemingly incompatible relationship between democracy and state secrecy. The killing of Osama Bin Laden is just one of many secret projects America has undertaken. It’s one we know about. There are many we don’t. They are, after all, secret.

The targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden on May 2, 2011 by the Navy Seal Team Six instantly brought to mind one of the most fascinating books I’ve read.  Paglen’s I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems From The Pentagon’s Black World (2008). It’s a tiny, but powerful book about military patches for top secret, classified Pentagon projects. Classified team members wear these patches on their uniforms or keep them as memorabilia.

Although there are all sorts of patches for every branch of the military’s unclassified projects and units, the top-secret, classified patches are unique and nearly impossible to decipher.

Paglen writes that the collection of patches from “black world” or classified missions is enigmatic, quixotic and deceptive. Like the “black world” itself, says Paglen. Members of top-secret units design these patches.

Using symbols, letters, numbers and drawings, embroidered cloth patches for classified projects are unusual because they tell stories that cannot be told using language. They are rare and mysterious. Paglen tells readers that what may look like an unremarkable lighting bolt on a patch actually is a distinct symbolic reference to a unit, a location or a project. Similarly, stars could be a clue to a hidden project or a means to divert attention away from the true nature of a classified project. Every detail has huge significance.

I’ve been wondering what the patch for the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden would look like? Would the stealth helicopter we didn’t know existed until it crashed, have its own patch? Would the success of the mission, the assassination of Bin Laden, be depicted so that only those privy to its extreme secrecy would understand its meaning? The patch would certainly signal pride among the team's elite members. But, would the patch tell their family members they killed the world’s most wanted terrorist?

One of the most intriguing patches pictured in I Could Tell You is a grey skull with huge, bared teeth and the words, ‘alone and on the prowl’ According to Paglen, this patch is thought to be one of two patches associated with a black Lockheed Martin Skunk Works project named ‘desert prowler.’

Another chilling patch, "a lifetime of silence behind the green door," features an ominous looking green figure holding a dagger. There is a red star on the patch, in the northern hemisphere, possibly indicating the project’s operating location, according to the author. 

These patches are captivating because they tell stories their creators and those who wear them can’t.  Their work is so stealth they spend their entire lives never talking about it. For most of us, that would be impossible. The issue of whether most of us could—or would—perform these missions is another story entirely.

What will the Navy Seal Team Six Bin Laden patch look like? Will we, the American public, ever see it? I emailed author Trevor Paglen to ask him. He responded right away, saying it is unlikely we will see a patch from the Team Six guys.

These heroic commandos slayed the most evil dragon the world has ever known. I wonder if the patch would be terrifying in its cunning simplicity or so complex even those knowledgeable about such things will have trouble deciphering it? This small patch, if it were to surface, could tell us the most we’ll ever know about this mission.