101st Info Page One

	THE DIVISION PATCH The patch of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) shows the head of an American bald eagle superimposed on a black shield. When originally adopted on 23 May 1923 by the 101st Division, the patch was a black shield with an eagle´s head over a pair of yellow flames symbolising battle or war. The eagle´s head represented Old Abe, the famed eagle mascot of the Wisconsin Infantry Regiment in the Civil War.

OLD ABE During the Civil war, the 8th Wisconsin carried Old Abe into battle screaming his fury at the enemy while tethered to a wooden shield. Though wounded twice, Old Abe survived and returned to Wisconsin after the war. When he died, his admirers mounted his remains for display in the Wisconsin state capital building. A fire in the building destroyed Old Abe, yet his memory lived on when the 101st Division, then headquartered in Milwaukee, placed him on its unit patch. When the 101st Airborne Division activated at Camp Clairborne on 16 August 1942, it adopted the same eagle patch, only without the flames. Identification of any symbolism in the use of a black background is hypothetical. Black, thought to be representative of iron, recalls the old "Iron Brigade," of Wisconsin Civil Warfame from which the 101st traces its heritage. On the other hand, Old Abe rode into battle perched on a black shield, which was considered symbolic of a fighting unit or soldier. Finally, on 29 August 1942, an airborne tab was added. YOUNG ABE / BILL LEE I In November 1942, the division received from the state of Wisconsin a new eagle mascot named Young Abe, who trained with the Division until his death in 1943. Just prior to the pentomic reorganization in September 1956, the 101st acquired its last live eagle mascot, Bill Lee I. This eagle died eight months later. Only two changes have been made in the patch since 1942. First, the black shield was worn without the airborne tab when the unit was a training division during 1948-49 and 1950-53. Second, the Division wore a green and black coloured patch in the early 1970's after the Vietnam war. Today, the heritage of Old Abe lives on in the spirit and shoulder patch of the Screaming Eagles.