503 PIR Unusual Patch

[Gary Cain]

Has anyone ever seen one of these before? I got it in a large batch of patches i got from the daughter of the soldier who brought them home. He was mainly based in Germany so got some nice German made patches, but this is one I have never seen.

[historyguy]

Yes. The original first run of 503rd patches were painted like this on canvas, with "Corregidor" instead of "The Rock."

The only example I have seen that had even a remote chance of being original was on lighter canvas-- both in color and weave.