IDF Shoulder Badges

One often sees armed uniformed soldiers nearly everywhere in Israel and that knowledge has become comforting. When we were flying home last December, we saw a large group of soldiers at the Atlanta airport and seeing that they were unarmed, we thought, "How do they protect themselves?" They just seemed so vulnerable.

Anyway, all IDF soldiers in Israel have colorful shoulder insignia on their uniforms that identify their unit affiliation. I have been very impressed by the variety of icons and images I've seen on soldier's shoulders and have always wondered what the various badges meant. They seem like really complex Boy Scout badges and they're just so cool looking.

Jen and I went to Tel Aviv last week to finish some last-minute touring and we stopped by an IDF museum that had all of the shoulder insignia displayed but, unfortunately, did not label them. So after our return to Jerusalem, I just searched the web and found a site that identifies dozens of shoulder insignia because they sell them.

For example...

This is the insignia for those assigned to the "Desert Reconnaissance" unit.

This represents the "Medical Corps School."

And this is the very elite "Petrol Supply Center!" Wow!