New book features US Military emblems, shows the Pentagon is full of D&D geeks and X-Files fans
I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World sounds like a wonderful book. I want T-shirts of every single one.
Shown here for the first time, these seventy-five patches reveal a secret world of military imagery and jargon, where classified projects are known by peculiar names ("Goat Suckers," "None of Your Fucking Business," "Tastes Like Chicken") and illustrated with occult symbols and ridiculous cartoons. Although the actual projects represented here (such as the notorious Area 51) are classified, these patches-which are worn by military units working on classified missions-are precisely photographed, strangely hinting at a world about which little is known.Link (Via Super Punch)By submitting hundreds of Freedom of Information requests, the author has also assembled an extensive and readable guide to the patches included here, making this volume the best available survey of the military's black world -- a $27 billion industry that has quietly grown by almost 50 percent since 9/11.
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Interesting. Real or art project? (see: http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/shop/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=134) In the final analysis, who cares? A quibble - pullus should instead be pork (long pork, anyone?) - in Latin of course.
My dad was in the military, and it seemed like they created patches for most of the projects he worked on (he usually gave them to me). They were likely made to spend year-end dollars.
I think the patches are evidence less of a secret cabal, as they seem to portray here, and more of the frat-ish sense of humor that old army guys usually have.
I'll probably get the book. Sounds interesting.
What a great way to do research on the extent of the unacknowledged areas of the U.S. military! It's only human nature to want your own patch for your own guys; and since patches are public identification marks, they can't be a secret in their own right.
It's totally real.
I would say it is people in cabals revealing their frat-ish sense of humor about it.
This guy is a great scholar and an artist. He has some work up in SF at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
you can check out his credentials here - his previous book is also pretty badass
http://www.paglen.com/
When I was in the USAF during the cold war,I had a patch with a picture of the Russian bear with a Nuke up his butt.
Could the "Don't Ask" one refer to the secret weapon that was meant to turn enemy soldiers gay?
"Goat Sucker" = Nightjar = Nighthawk = F-117 Stealth Fighter
My dad has some really funny/clever patches from the army in the 70s as well. It's not so ominous. Military types have a great sense of humor, I think.
And here I thought that the patches I had from 80's Space Shuttle missions were cool.
I'd buy one, if I could. It would look hilarious in a shadow box.
In a way it doesn't seem all that different than the burlesques and cartoons painted on bombers during WW2.
This book is by Bay Artist/Investigator/Geologist Doctorial Candidate at UC Berkeley Trevor Paglen. He came to my school (CCA) and gave a talk and I've also seen him speak a few other times. He's awesome. Super smart, informed and highly suspicious of, well, everything. He's an amazing artist. He did this insane project were he tried to photography spy satellites in the night sky. He told us he had to calculate trajectory, speed and all these other crazy variables to find the precise place in the sky where the satellites would be! Needless to say it was pretty impossible and I think he only got one image of a whitish streak.
Anyways, most of these patches are made by him, although I think a few are real. Regardless, really cool project. Check out his website for more!
http://www.paglen.com
I'm reminded of Poindexter's Information Awareness Office (IAO)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office
I love it when the real or imagined link between occult societies and the US military-industrial-government complex is hidden in plain sight. Is it all real or do the guys who design these things get a wicked grin from subverting the process?
Some of the conspiracy types out there want to think that government folks, even the military and black ops types are white-shirt-black-tie unthinking unfeeling (or evil) robots.
It's easier than remembering that most of them just go home after work and live their normal lives, read, write, watch TV, laugh, love, etc. It shouldn't be surprising that enough of them have enough of a sense of humor to get this kind dof stuff through.
When I worked for a DOD contractor - I was surprised to discover that they had a large graphic arts department dedicated to logos and patches for all sorts of their projects.
It seems as if you don't have a patch and logo for your government project. You don't have a well supported government project.
Huxley @11: From the description of the book on Amazon, it looks like all the badges are 'real', in the sense that they're actually worn, though I don't know who designed them in the first place.
Interestingly, I note that Paglen is also the co-author of Terror Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights, on which project he seems to have more success with his photography than when tracking spy satellites.