This is the newest 3" shoulder patch for HMLA-773 DET A, NOMADS.
With or without hook & loop.
From a NOMAD veteran:
Chris Breaux When I got to the unit as a Reservist in 88, from active duty, the active duty CO was LtCol “Stump” Mitchell, a short Marine, all of about 5 feet tall. Flew a lot with him while doing AFTP’s. He drove a white 77 Vette. He did not like the idea the unit did not have its own call sign. The modex on the tail for 767 was MM. That did not sit too well with the CO. So he looked at MARTD and could not make it fit. So he came up with New Orleans Marine Aviation Detachment Squadron, or NOMADS. The Joe Camel patch came into being right before Desert Storm. If I remember correctly, Bob Vorhoff and Mike Reed (R.I.P.) came up with the idea and I think Steve “Love Doctor” Farber had a hand in it also by having them made. During Desert Storm we had the Joe Camel head on all of our aircraft with “The Black Camels”. The active duty Sergeant Major really did not like the “Smoking Joe Camel” with a cigarette. A year or so after Desert Storm one of the active duty CO’s bought into the idea of not liking the Camel patch and we reverted to the older HML-767 patch with, what we called, a white Chicken on it. It was actually an Eagle.
