Army’s uniforms for the 2022 Army-Navy Game are “designed to honor the 1st Armored Division,” while also “telling the story of ‘Old Ironsides’” during World War II, according to Blake Stilwell of MILITARY.com. The uniform features a “World War II-era flag, with 48 stars.” The side of the helmet features the “1st Armored Division unit patch.” In the center is the “North Africa Campaign streamer” flanked by “brown stripes on the edges that represent the sand of North Africa.” It also includes “blue, white and red stripes from the American Defense Medal, representing the defense of Pearl Harbor.” The streamer’s other stripes “represent the colors of Germany and Italy,” with an “arrowhead device to represent Operation Torch.” The jersey has a “mud splatter design to show the reality of fighting in the North African desert,” with the numbers “reminiscent of the type used on the M3 Lee tank.” The colors also were “inspired by the M3 tank” (MILITARY.com, 11/28).
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: CBSSPORTS.com’s Barrett Sallee noted this is the 80th anniversary of Operation Torch, which was the “start of the United States’ ground operations in Europe and North Africa.” The “Iron Soldiers” defeated Axis forces in North Africa in “harsh, desert conditions.” Approximately 125,000 soldiers landed in Algeria and French Morocco in November 1942 in what was the “largest amphibious landing in history at that point” (CBSSPORTS.com, 11/28).
