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Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
NASA patches, First Flight

NASA patches on display in the 602 Club

An assignment patch, or mission patch, was a patch or badge seen on uniforms, most notably on Earth, where their use began in the 20th century. The United Earth Starfleet and MACO personnel continued to use assignment patches to denote the ship, station, or other post to which an individual was assigned, as did the later Federation Starfleet.

History[]

In 20th and 21st century Earth, assignment patches were used on military uniforms and civilian uniforms alike. NASA patches from that era appeared in the Crash-n-Burn Bar in Bozeman, Montana, and at the 602 Club in San Francisco. (Star Trek: First Contact; ENT: "First Flight")

Historical patches were a century later in the alternate reality in a similar fashion displayed behind the bar of the Riverside, Iowa Shipyard Bar. (Star Trek)

While most of the patches seen at the 602 Club were real NASA mission patches, one case contained fictional patches from the Star Trek universe. Many of them were shown only in "First Flight".
Likewise, the Shipyard Bar had also at least two USAAF badges displayed behind the bar. [1]

In 1944 of an alternate timeline, Alicia Travers noted that the patch on Jonathan Archer's shirt said "Enterprise" and surmised he was a sailor on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier. She asked him how he wound up so far from the site of the ship's sinking, but he didn't elaborate. (ENT: "Storm Front")

In the early 22nd century, Starfleet personnel wore assignment patches on the sleeve of their left arm, in a similar style worn during the initial period of space flight on Earth. The uniform was later updated, adding the Starfleet patch to the right arm. (ENT: "These Are the Voyages...") The assignment patch of Enterprise NX-01 was also used as a screensaver on monitors aboard the ship. (ENT: "The Catwalk")

In the mirror universe, the Terran Empire used the traditional styling from the 22nd century. While the Empire's uniforms had several variations that distinguished them from those of the prime universe, they still wore mission patches on their shoulders. By the 23rd century, the mission patch had been replaced with the Imperial insignia. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II"; TOS: "Mirror, Mirror")

By 2233 assignment patches had seemingly been done away with, although a badge in the shape of the Starfleet insignia placed over the left breast was a part of the uniform, at least on the USS Kelvin. (Star Trek)

Some time before 2256, Starfleet adopted assignment patch-like variations in these badges, placing smaller symbols inside the Starfleet insignia, to indicate different branches or specialties. (TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I", "The Menagerie, Part II", DIS) This also occurred in the alternate reality created by Nero's destruction of the Kelvin. (Star Trek; Star Trek Into Darkness; Star Trek Beyond)

McCoy, Scott, and Chekov

Division-based assignment patches

Later in the mid-23rd century, Starfleet resumed the tradition of using unique patch emblems for different assignments, albeit placing them over the left breast. These patches usually but not always included the same symbols for the different divisions. (TOS; ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly", "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

The seashell-like assignment patch worn by prime universe outpost personnel also appeared again as a decoration of the mirror universe uniform worn by Dr. McCoy in "Mirror, Mirror".

By the 2280s, this styling ceased, and Starfleet once again adopted standardized badges in the shape of the Starfleet insignia for all personnel. (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)

Assignment patches thus fell into disuse, and Starfleet eventually supplanted them with combadges in the shape of the Starfleet insignia. For example, such combadges were worn by the crew of the Soyuz-class USS Bozeman in 2278 and the Ambassador-class USS Enterprise-C in 2344. (TNG: "Cause And Effect", "Yesterday's Enterprise")

The last assignment patch seen in the 23rd century was for Epsilon IX station personnel in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, set in the 2270s. The Starfleet pins adopting the Enterprise emblem were first seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Newer combadges were first seen in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint".
There are some stray elements which detract from the "one ship, one emblem" theory often applied to spacecrafts of the 23rd century; some members of Kirk's Academy class who cajoled Kirk in a lounge in TOS: "Court Martial" also wore the Enterprise patch. It would seem unlikely that Kirk's direct subordinates would take part in such a thing, classmate or no, so it at least suggests they were assigned elsewhere, yet had the same patch.

20th and 21st century patches[]

The Charybdis mission patch was replaced in the TNG Season 2 Blu-ray release of "The Royale". The original design was a repurposed Apollo XVII mission patch, featuring the names of that vessel's astronaut crew.

22nd century patches[]

23rd century patches[]

24th century patches[]

Appendices[]

Background information[]

602 Club patches large

Several patches on display in the 602 Club

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 48), the term "mission patch" was "not spoken in dialog, but was used in scene descriptions in 'Affliction', where it described both ship and agency emblems. The classic Starfleet arrowhead emblem was created by costume designer William Ware Theiss."

The assignment patch for the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) and the movie-era Starfleet assignment badge are very similar to those used by the US Space Command in the 20th century and early 21st century.

The assignment patch for Enterprise NX-01 was created by Wendy Drapanas, whereas the patch for the ECS Horizon was designed by Anthony Fredrickson. "When Wendy and I had our assignments on the pilot ['Broken Bow']," recalled Fredrickson, "one of hers was to design the NX-01 patch – which was a cherry assignment that I was very jealous she got! So when Mike [Okuda] gave me the Horizon patch, even though it was only for one show, I was very happy." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 144, p. 36)

Michael Okuda has also designed two real world emblems; the STS-125 mission patch in 2009, and more recently, the emblem for Johnson Space Center's Flight Operations. [2]

A memo from Robert H. Justman dated 18 December 1967 discusses the Starfleet arrowhead emblem and individual crew patches. It states "all Starship personnel wear the Starship emblem that we have established for our Enterprise Crew Members to wear," meaning that the arrowhead was always meant to be the emblem for all of Starfleet. Further, the crew of the Antares was the "equivalent of the Merchant Marines or freighter personnel" and other emblems should be counted as production mistakes. [3]

External link[]

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