Patches tell the stories of military black projects

This story originally aired on KLAS-TV on May 4, 2008.

MYSTERY WIRE — The deserts of the American southwest are pockmarked with secret military bases housing classified projects. It’s been said there are secrets in the desert that could make Star Wars creator George Lucas jealous.

Over at least the last 80 years the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars on what’s commonly called black projects.

This would include development of the stealth fighter, a black project the public didn’t know about for more than ten years after it began flying.

But some people are able to interpret messages hidden in plain sight sewn into patches handed out to black project workers. U.S. military patches have been around since World War II.

Anyone can drive to the gate of secret bases like Area 51 but most will never truly know what is taking place. That is, unless you get a glimpse of worker’s patches.

Author Trevor Paglen collects the colorful patches, created by outfits you’ve never heard of, working on projects you may never see. The imagery in many of the patches is menacing. You can see ghosts, skulls, specters, and spooks. Many of them look like something a teenage boy might draw.

This shows a white Boeing 737 with a red stipe. The aircraft is better known as a “JANET jet.” The fleet is based out of Las Vegas and ferries workers to and from secret bases such as Area 51 and the Tonopah Test Range. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
This patch comes from an unidentified air refueling squadron charged with supporting black aircraft projects. The spy character appears to be holding a fuel boom from a KC-135 or KC-10. NKAWTG refers to the unofficial motto of the Air Force’s tanker units: “No One Kicks Ass Without Tanker Gas” (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
The GHOST squadron is based at Area 51. The design of the skull’s helmet indicates that “Ghost” is a helicopter unit. The footprints on the helmet mark the trace of the “Jolly Green Giant,” a symbol connected to helicopter search and rescue missions. The meaning of the acronym is unclear. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
This patch is from an unknown program active at Groom Lake (Area 51) in the late 1990’s. The six stars could represent Area 51 and the three stars below might represent “Detachment 3.” Groom Lake is also known as “Air Force Flight Test Center, Detachment 3. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
Based at Area 51, the Special Projects Flight Test Squadron is the Air Force’s only “black” flight test squadron for classified prototype aircraft and advanced concept technology demonstrators. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
As of 2008 Minotaur is a still classified program undertaken by Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs division, the Skunk Works. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
Panther Den is a Special Access Program (SAP) based at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts. Managed by the Big Safari project office, Panther Den is charged with overseeing classified information warfare projects. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)
“Rat 55” is a call sign used by pilots flying a highly modified T-43A. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)

However, if you know how to read them the patches are packed with information about the black project they represent. Patches showing clues to the secret projects have been used dating back to at least the Manhattan Project.

Thanks to the Los Alamos Historical Society we learned an original Manhattan Project patch is on display at the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. The following list is how the museum describes the colors and symbols on the patch:

Blue: Symbolizes the Universe
White Cloud & Lightning Bolt: Forms a question mark which symbolizes the unknown results and secret nature of the program.
Split Yellow Atom: Represents atomic fission and confidence that the Manhattan Project would be successful
Red & Blue Star: Insignia of the Army Service Forces

Other patches have collections of six stars, separated into a group of five and a single star to the side, representing that the patch belongs to a project being conducted at Area 51.

Based at Area 51, the Special Projects Flight Test Squadron is the Air Force’s only “black” flight test squadron for classified prototype aircraft and advanced concept technology demonstrators. (Source: I Could Tell You but Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed by Me)

The lightning bolt seen in many patches is commonly associated with electronic warfare.

“The Grim Reapers were one of the old stealth squadrons at Tonopah,” Paglen told Mystery Wire. “Grim Reapers and Nightstalkers. And when those units became public, they had to change their names. Grim Reapers was apparently too satanic for military brass. So they became the ghostriders.”

There are also some inside jokes embroidered on the patches. In one patch Paglen found the acronym NOYFB. is at the bottom. A large question mark and moon are in the center and the phrase “DON’T ASK!” is on top. One’s imagination might help you interpret what NOYFB stands for. According to at least one account online, the “DON’T ASK —NOYFB.” patch is from the 22nd Military Airlift Squadron that flew C-5 cargo aircraft out of Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. This unit conducted late night operations picking up classified aircraft from aerospace plants in Southern California and delivering them to classified locations for testing and evaluation.

A common theme in some are aliens and UFOs like a patch used for a MARS (materials application repair section) project. Its members were known as Martians. The Martians job was to repair radar absorbing coatings on stealth jets.

Other patches have Latin inscriptions. The patch for the classified flight test unit 509, the same unit involved in the infamous Roswell incident, includes a reference to an old Twilight Zone episode in which aliens ate humans. The patch shows an alien appearing to hold a stealth fighter near its mouth. It includes the Latin phrase “Gustatus Similis Pullus” which when translated means “tastes like chicken.”

Sometimes the clues are hidden. The patch for the Bird of Prey jet, which the military flew for 6 years in secrecy, shows the shape of the futuristic jet in the handle on the sword.