Hawaii Dept. Athletic Patches 1922-41

John Patton

The 8^th Field Artillery Regiment arrived on February 12^th, 1921 and was assigned to the Provisional Field Artillery Brigade.   The Regiment selected first the “Parson” for a nickname but then later changed it to the “Gunners”.   One of the Regiments’ first Coaches, Chaplain Champitt, faded in importance as time had passed and that’s when the new athletes decided on a more universal team name.  Another variation suggests that shape of a football since the pointed background continues up behind the star.  It was more than likely that a football player added his own sporting design into their Regimental team insignia.

“The game was exceedingly rough but this can be accounted for by the small court which is not even large enough for that recommended for high school teams.”  Lt. Beynon and “Mush” Hjelte were kept busy with the whistle to keep this game from turning into a free-for-all.”  These excerpts were taken from the “Luke Field News” of March 15, 1934 illustrating the competitive characteristics of the pre-war soldiers.         

Sporting activities were an integral formula for keeping morale high.  The duties in the Pacific garrison were troublesome for most soldiers to adjust to and everything was foreign or diverse in the Oriental fashion.  The lifestyle these soldiers were familiar with was non-existent in the Pacific garrison, which evoked substance abuse and disorderly conduct.  Recognizing the problem and learning from earlier experiences with the Philippine Command, The Hawaiian Department organized a Provisional Athletic Training Company.  This highly unusual unit was attached to the Special Troops, Hawaiian Division on January 31, 1922.

                Each Regimental Commanding Officer was given orders to form all types of competitive athletic teams.  The men that participated in these became larger than life as the years progressed.  The duties and promotions were greatly influenced by the successful achievements of the individual athletes.  Preferential treatment, special considerations for duties and non-commissioning rates were given to those top-performing athletes regardless of whether they were ideal or suited for the particular position.

                Special processing charts, training coaches and medical personnel expanded on all athletic abilities that soldier may have possessed.  It got to a point that the Commanding Officers were in fierce competition to obtain the top athletes.  Some embraced the ideal that the success of their command ultimately depended upon these selected individuals.

                The classic novel, “From Here to Eternity” by James Jones methodically touches on these very facts throughout the entire story.  The sporting event that captured the Islands population was the “Smokers”.  Just as in the novel, the “Boxers” were golden and the most prized of all the athletes.   Jones himself was a former Golden Glove contender.

                From a collector’s perspective, these different regimental sporting teams designed some really exciting group insignia.  Most of the patches took form from their respective distinctive insignia but some incorporated sports elements that were representative to that particular team.  It appears like that from studying period dated photos from various sources and independent collections; some of the more popular regiments had variations. This was probably a result of athletes having their own interpretation of how the team design should look.  All the designs are felt constructed with details being machine embroidered.      

The following patches reveal another interesting series of in-between the war tailor-made insignia that were exclusive to the Pacific Army.  Several variations exist which are not illustrated, but have been observed in old issues of “Army Navy Reviews” from the 1930’s.  It is quite possible that there are other athletic patches just floating around out there, waiting to be discovered and documented.

                 The author may be contacted at: kiaiokalewa@hawaii.rr.com

                I would like to thank the following people:  Judy Bowman (curator of the U.S. Army Museum, Fort DeRussy, Waikiki), Linda Hee & Adam Elia (curators of the Tropic Lightning Museum, Schofield Barracks), Collectors of insignia; Steve and Dave Johnson, Derek and Duane Netzly, Aaron Pollick, Marty Swanson and a special thanks to my wife Pammi for editing this article.

The 11^th Field Artillery Regiment arrived on January 13^th, 1921 and was assigned to Schofield Barracks.  Here you can see that slight variations make a big difference.  The two bordering the center piece are just about identical and are felt on felt construction, while the other has its Rampant Lion fully machine embroidered with black border on a white felt diamond background.   It is possible that the machine-embroidered example was special order with a military supplier from the continental U.S.  None of the other Regimental athletic patches come in this type of construction and the local textile industry just didn’t have this kind of technology on the Islands.  The “Fields” was the nickname selected but I found them to be called the “Dragons” as well.  This seems really odd since they had a Rampant Lion rather than a Dragon mascot.

Shown in this 1930 photo are some of the 8^th Field Artillery Regiment Boxing Squad Champions.  Half of the members pictured here wear their Regimental athletic insignia on their boxing shorts.  Schofield Barracks had a ten team-boxing league that included the 8^th, 11^th, 13^th Field Artillery, 19^th, 21^st, 31^st, 35^th Infantry, 3^rd Engineer Regiments and Staff.  Wheeler Field, the neighboring base of “Flyboys”; also participated in the thirty or so “Smokers” boxing events annually.

The 11^th Ammunition Train, Artillery, Hawaiian Division was organized on April 14^th, 1921.  This unit was active in participating in the sporting activities for nine years until it was inactivated in November 30^th, 1930.  This has to be one of the most stunning athletic patches worn here in the Hawaiian Islands.