U.S. ARMY ELEMENT, U.S. JOINT FORCES COMMAND PATCH (SSI)

Obsolete since the formal disestablishment of the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) on 4 August 2011, the Shoulder Sleeve Insignia worn by U.S Army personnel assigned to the Command was approved on 18 August 1999.

The design of the U.S. Army’s USJFCOM patch is a duplicate of the Command’s seal and features an outline of the continental United States, with four stars roughly centered on the shape of the land mass and four horizontal, curved bands colored green, red, black, and blue. In military heraldry, stars are regularly associated with Command authority and here clearly stand for the Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force elements serving at USJFCOM. The four bands, on the other hand, embody the increased power and military capabilities achieved by the active collaboration of four principal branches of our Nation’s military.

Although the Joint Forces Command was not established until 1999, the impetus behind its creation goes back to 1983 and the lackluster results of joint operations during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. Following 1993 reorganization of United States Atlantic Command, the Joint Warfighting Center was created in the Command and quickly became the focal point in the Department of Defense’s efforts to develop joint doctrine.

By 2011, however, joint operations had become so commonplace that there was little that could be brought to the equation that hadn’t already been explored or considered under existential conditions. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recommended it be disestablished and the few useful functions it still retained be distributed among other Unified Combatant Commands.