The History of the Little Sprout Patch

This is a chronological History of the patches used by crews that were Sprout patches. The only two units to use the Sprout have been the 33rd ARRS/RQS & the 56th RQS.

33rd Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Squadron Detachment 13

This is the first patch that had the design of the sprout instead of the Jolly Green Giant. It was used by Det 13 of the 33rd ARRS, the main Squadron based at Kadena AB Japan & the Det was at Osan AB, South Korea. The sprout was used as the Squadron thought it was the baby of the main Squadron, as it had minimal crew & only a few HH-3's, so it seemed logical to use the Sprout design. Made for the unit in the 1970s.

33rd Rescue Squadron

Move on a decade or two & again the Sprout was used again. The patch was designed by the 33rd RQS & the story goes this was made for the children of the crews assigned to the 33rd RQS flying HH-60G's at Kadena AB.

56th Rescue Squadron

Roll on yet another couple of decades & moved halfway around the world, & you find the 56th RQS using the design, although it's not sure why the Sprout design was used. This was the first patch that was made by crews assigned to the 56th HMU at RAF Lakenheath, England for HH-60G helicopter 89-26212 & was made in January 2018. The patch was made on the on-base Hobby Shop at RAF Lakenheath & was reportedly made in very low numbers, as low as single figures.

56th Rescue Squadron

The second batch that was made all were made in February 2018, again by the 56th HMU, & again on the on-base Hobby Shop. These were made for the crews of HH-60G 89-26205, 89-26206, 89-26208 & 89-26212. The design a month later had changed, the numbers of the aircraft being closer together & all of them having Jolly Green embroidered on them. The 56th RQS actually had another HH-60G, this being 91-26353, however, if a patch was made I've never seen one, so can't confirm or deny if one has been made. 353 was the first HH-60G's to move to Aviano, this taking place in mid-April 2018, with the rest of the helicopters moving in May 2018.

56th Rescue Squadron

Roll on to the Summer of 2018 & these final two were made, & again were made by the 56th HMU, again on the on-base Hobby Shop, & again the design had been changed, this time incorporating a head-on white silhouette of an HH-60G. 

55th Helicopter Maintenance Unit

This patch wins the most colorful sprout patch and was 1 of 200 made by the 55th HMU crew at Davis-Monthan AFB during 2018.

56th Rescue Squadron

This is the latest sprout patch to be made, this again from the 56th RQS, for HH-60G 89-26205. It was made by TJ embroidery when the Squadron left Lakenheath for Aviano. 

NOTE: Thanks for this incredible and detailed article made by my friend and fellow JGG expert collector AMR from The Jolly Green Giant Collection.

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