The Dragon is in your Base Killing your Dudes
You’re an imagery analyst, so naturally you see yourself as a Tolkein-esque flying serpent, dispensing destruction from the heavens. That’s the apparent animating impulse behind what Paglen can only call the Unknown Dragon Patch. Dragons typically stand in for signals-intelligence satellite launches; their wing patterns on patches “symbolize the massive gold-foil dish antennae” of SIGINT spacecraft.
Better still, the Latin translates to “All your Base are belong to us ” which we remember as the earliest and most bizarre of all memes. Maybe the crew operating the “Largest Satellite in the world” which the National Reconnaissance Office launched into space on Friday, will have a Double Rainbow patch someday.
The More Secretive the Drone the more Psychedelic the Patch
Groom Lake doesn’t just house cutting-edge piloted planes. It’s also home to the Desert Prowler, a Lockheed-designed drone shrouded in mystery since its 2005 launch — and, perhaps, related to a different secret drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel aloft over Kandahar.
And since its remote pilots and crew can’t exactly flaunt their involvement with the program, their patches will have to suffice. The Roman numerals for 9 and 11 partially bound the badge — subtle! — and the rainbow-emanating eye has a lightning bolt through it, suggesting that the drone is armed and ready to rain vengeance for 9/11 on presumed Kandahari insurgents. Wild guess: The lightning-bolted Omega in the thought balloon indicates the drone is dreaming of a violent end to its targets.
I want to Believe (in the Navy`s Communication Network)
The Navy uses a system of Boeing-designed space satellites to keep mariners connected with each other and home base while they’re out at sea. The system is known as the Ultra High Frequency Follow on program.
If you squint enough, that kinda-sorta-maybe abbreviates to UFO. Naturally, some wise-cracking sailor — Paglen doesn’t specify whom — had the idea to make this X-Files-inspired patch.
The Only thing falling to Earth is your Secrets
This one belongs to the Hawaii-based 6594th Test Group, the wide receivers of military intelligence. In the early days of photo-reconnaissance satellites, back in the 1960s, the images taken by satellites printed to actual film. That meant anything the satellite observed had to be physically transported back to Earth for analysis.
Those were the “Falling Stars” in this patch: Film canisters ejected from the satellites fell to earth over the Pacific. The 6594th Test Group “had to go out in airplanes and try to catch them as they fell from the heavens,” Paglen says. This patch is one of his favorites.
Drone Strikes From Space
The PAN satellite is so secretive that people joke it stands for “Pick a Name,” rather than “Palladium at Night.” Launched into geostationary orbit in September 2009, no military or intelligence agency claims to operate the communications Device
Paglen reports that’s led space-watchers to suspect it’s a rare CIA-controlled satellite, used as a “communications relay for armed CIA Predator and Reaper drones operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
PAN is also the name of an ancient horned god important in occultism and that has a strange link with the history of rocket science in the United States.
The ancient god Pan, a nature deity with phallic attributes.
Jack Parsons, a pioneer in American space propulsion who is often credited for having “propelled” the United States into the space age (a crater of the moon is named in his honor), was also a notorious occultist. He was a prominent member of the Ordo Templi Orienti (the O.T.O.), an occult secret society popularized by Aleister Crowley. Seeing no separation between his professional and his occult work, Parsons was known to chant Crowley’s poem entitled Hymn to Pan before each test rocket launch.
Spies in Space are Ready to Breach your Borders
Paglen won’t be able to find the origins of every patch he comes across. But rarely is a mystery more appropriate than in the case of the Sensor Hunters, whoever they are. Illustrated by one of MAD Magazine‘s spies, their brief(cases) include spying on the entire world, with swaggering disregard for nations’ claims to control their own internal affairs.
The twinkling stars probably suggest these guys have something to do with space, but all Paglen writes is that they “devoted to reconnaissance and intelligence operations.”
Special Projects Flight Test Squadron
Welcome to Area 51
Out in the Nevada desert, in a place called Groom Lake, the Air Force’s most secretive organization tests its advanced prototypes. Supposedly, Lockheed’s F-117A Nighthawk stealth plane went through Groom Lake’s test facilities — one of many flown by the Special Projects Flight Test Squadron, whose patch this is.
The diamond shape in the center of the undated patch “may refer to early designs of stealth aircraft,” Paglen writes. Those planes are parked next to the dismembered Martians.
Confirmed The Air force Totally Hides Aliens From Us
You don’t know how many Freedom of Information Act requests we’ve filed in the hope of finding the Alien Technology Exploitation Division, the intrepid souls who’ll soon announce a sources-sought contract to develop the Hyperspace Blaster. Alas, they don’t exist.
A former officer at Air Force Space Command tells Paglen that he and his friends had the patches made at their own expense after getting endlessly ribbed for working in a secure vault “where they kept the alien bodies.” They wore them on their flight suits for months before a one-star general asked where he could get one of his own.
Oh, and the barely-decipherable legend on the bottom? It’s Klingon for “Don’t Ask.” Paglen got it in the mail from its creator after mentioning that he knew about its existence on the Colbert Report
Special Projects Flight Test Squadron
No one patch may cobble together as many symbols as this one does. “Rat 55″ is the call sign for pilots flying the T-43A a radar testbed (“Rat,” get it?) with an Air Force serial number ending in 55.
The rat’s holding a pair of radar devices, one stretched outward and one near its butt, “both of which recall the radome configuration” of the plane. Other flight-test operators for classified aircraft wear patches with wizardy features, so presumably that’s what’s up with the rat’s hat.
Like a Space Phoenix From Hell
The Latin phrase below the Phoenix translates to “The Devil You Know.” That’s the rationale behind the spy-satellite operators at the National Reconnaissance Office, who peer into the workings of foreign military arsenals from hundreds of miles into space.
This patch, from National Reconnaissance Office Launch 49, puts a bold face on a failure: the Future Imagery Architecture, a $10 billion disaster in the guise of a satellite able to peer through heavy cloud cover. The end of Future Imagery Architecture meant that NRO had to continue with its KH “Keyhole” satellite family, many of which the United States uses to Spy on Russian Nukes. Launch 49 of the KH-11 series supposedly used spare parts from Future Imagery Architecture — hence the Phoenix design.
TSSAM
Because the acronym for the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) recalled the Tasmanian Devil Cartoon Character,the tornado-like image of the Character in Motion came to represent the Classified Cruse Missile
Semper Un obscurus Special Projects
This patch comes from the special Projects Office which operated out of The Air Forces Sacramento Air Logistics Center and Oversaw Maintenance and Support of the F117A Stealth Fighter Program The Phrase Semper Un Obscurus Translates as Always in the Dark The Mushroom which Grows in Darkness Symbolizes the Secret Nature of the Offices Work
This same patch is now used by the 412 Test Wings Special Projects at Edwards Air Force Base
Mission patches are used by military and space organizations to identify, symbolize and describe a mission’s objectives and its crew. This tradition is also observed in the shady world of PSYOPS where each secret mission of the Pentagon gets its patch. These patches offer a rare glimpse into the Pentagon’s secret operations and the symbolism on them is rather striking: ominous and cryptic phrases, dark occult symbolism, references to secret societies, and sometimes even a rather dark sense of humor.
In 1965, NASA began using cloth patches to identify each of its missions and to symbolize the missions’ objectives and their crew. Each rocket launch has therefore a patch designed by crew members and in collaboration with the official design team. The patches are then proudly displayed on equipment and worn by NASA astronauts and other personnel affiliated with a particular manned or unmanned space mission.
Various NASA mission patches
Since then, other organizations involved in space travel and secret operations began using mission patches, including those that specialize in PSYOPS (psychological warfare): the CIA, the Department of Defense and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). What does space travel have to do with psychological warfare? Spy satellites. Since 1960, the NRO (whose existence was only declassified in 1992) has launched dozens of secret spy satellites into space, collecting an incredible amount of information on the United States’ friends, enemies and citizens.
As it is nearly impossible to obtain information regarding these highly classified endeavours, mission patches offer a rare glimpse into the world of PSYOPS. Even if one is not well-versed in symbolism, it is easy to perceive a sinister “vibe” emanating from the patch designs. Laced with strange symbols, ominous creatures, obscure Latin phrases and even dark humor, these patches reflect the mindstate of those wearing the patches.
The trailblazer in this area of research is Trevor Paglen, who, in 2008, published the book “I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World”. By the means of hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, he obtained and analyzed forty mission patches. From the book reviews:
“The iconography of the United States military. Not the mainstream military, with its bars and ribbons and medals, but the secret or ‘black projects’ world, which may or may not involve contacting aliens, building undetectable spy aircraft, and experimenting with explosives that could make atomic bombs look like firecrackers. Here, mysterious characters and cryptic symbols hint at intrigue much deeper than rank, company, and unit.”
—UTNE Reader“Of course, issuing patches for a covert operation sounds like a joke … but truth be told, these days everything is branded. Military symbols are frequently replete with heraldic imagery—some rooted in history, others based on contemporary popular arts that feature comic characters—but these enigmatic dark-op images, in some cases probably designed by the participants themselves, are more personal, and also more disturbing, than most.”
—Steven Heller, The New York Times Book Review
Since the release of this book, new mission patches have been released that are as strange and cryptic as their predecessors. If these patches are meant to symbolize “the values of the crew and the objectives of the mission”, perhaps we should be a little concerned.
Alien Face
TENCAP is an acronym for “Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities” and is a collection of programs involving the cutting edge of warfare.
“The purpose of the AF TENCAP program is to exploit the current and future potential of existing national, commercial, and civil space systems and national air-breathing systems, and to provide these capabilities to the warfighter as rapidly as possible.”
- Source
In PSYOPS, “Special” almost invariably means “black” or highly classified. Does the “highly classified part” of the mission have something to do with the fact that the badge bears the face of an alien? The saying at the bottom does not help: The phrase “Oderint Dum Metuant” is usually associated with Caligula, the first-century Roman emperor whose name became synonymous with depravity, madness, and tyranny. It translates as “Let them hate so long as they fear.” Right.
Supra Summus
This is a patch for a NRO spy-satellite launch. Those familiar with this site will probably recognize this Illuminati 101 symbolism: An unfinished pyramid topped by the All-Seeing Eye. This All-Seeing Eye requires help: it needs spy satellites to be even more all-seeing.
“LMA” at the bottom right most likely refers to Lockheed Martin Aerospace, which is the ultimate Big Brother mega-company working with the CIA, NRO, NSA and IRS.
Above the All-Seeing Eye is written “Supra Summus”, which can be translated to “Most Superior and Highest”, which, if nothing else, indicates a healthy level of self-esteem.
Other NRO spy-satellite launches have also used similar designs.
The 23rd Space Operations Squadron (23 SOPS) is a United States Air Force unit located at New Boston Air Force Station in New Hampshire. The patch of this mission features a creepy-looking figure in a creepy hood looking over the earth with creepy eyes, staring creepily at the American continent. However, that is not the creepiest thing in this patch. If you look closely at the contour of the black face, you’ll see another face, with pointy nose and pointy ears, looking left. Who is this creepier dude within an already creepy dude? And what’s up with all the layers of creepy?
The saying “Semper Vigilans” means “Always Vigilant”. At least I can relate to that. But in the context of this patch, it is definitely creepy.
Another patch related to NRO-49 depicts the satellite as a winged fiery being (referred to by NASA as a devil named Betty) who is holding a trident and a wrench.
“An image of a devil features on the launch patch. The old tradition of giving rockets personal names also appears to have been revived; Delta 352 seems to have been named “Betty”, and the Atlas V that launched from Vandenberg last year was named ‘Gladys’.”
- Ibid.
The patch shows the moon (or a comet?) partially covering the earth. If you look closely, there are letters in the detail of the grey astral body. What do they refer to? At the bottom of the patch, the Latin phrase is also enigmatic: “Primoris Gravis Ex Occasus”. Primoris means “First”, Gravis stands for “important, heavy or serious” and Occasus means “setting of the sun, the West, or fall”. In other words, I don’t know what it means. “First heavy setting of the sun”? “The most important thing after the sunset”? “First serious fall”? Regardless of the exact meaning, there seems to be an emphasis on the concept of darkness. Betty is pure darkness wrapped in flames and is partially covering the sun. There is a grey celestial body moving towards the earth … and we’re still talking about a spy-satellite. Okay.
There are many other patches giving a glimpse in the somehow twisted world of PSYOPS:
