While watching TV recently I happened to see a Scott Brown for Senate commercial in which he was pictured wearing his Army uniform. I was surprised to see that he was wearing a unit patch on his ACU right sleeve. For those unfamiliar with how the Army wears the various patches and badges on the Army Combat Uniform, I will just relate two customs prescribed by regulations. On the left sleeve, the patch of the unit to which you are currently assigned is worn. On the right sleeve you have the choice of wearing the patch of any unit that you served in combat with, or you may wear none at all.

Deployed in combat does not just mean those who are subject to enemy fire, but all soldiers deployed with that unit and serving in a combat zone. Thus the clerks, supply personnel, lawyers and all the support personnel serving in a rear area are authorized to display the combat patch just as the frontline soldiers such infantry and aviators.

That said, I Googled Scott Brown’s military service and found that, as part of his military training as a National Guard JAG officer, he visited Afghanistan for two weeks while he was a sitting U.S Senator.

I am amazed at the Chutzpah candidate Brown has shown by wearing a combat patch for a two-week visit to a combat zone which the news media announced at the time “was not a deployment.”

A review of the medals awarded to candidate Brown also shows that he was never awarded the Afghanistan Service Medal, which would have been presented to him if he was credited with a deployment. I, for one, do not believe he is authorized to display that patch on his right sleeve and request that candidate Brown explain his justification for doing so.

Jerry DiGrezio

Nashua

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