Spain - SOF insignia

[airbornelawyer]

Here are a variety of different badges and patches for Spain's Green Berets, the "Boinas Verdes":

1. Special operations qualification badge:

http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/Elite_Unit_Insignia/ES_OE_qual.jpg

2. Beret badges for the green beret. First is the special operations patch and second is the general beret patch for enlisted soldiers. Both are worn on the beret side by side.

http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/Elite_Unit_Insignia/ES_beret_badges.jpg

3. Sleeve patches for a special operations group (GOE), but I don't know which one (I think it's GOE III).

http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/Elite_Unit_Insignia/ES_GOE.jpg

4. Sleeve patch for the 92nd Special Operations Company (Compañia de Operaciones Especiales or COE).

http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/Elite_Unit_Insignia/ES_COE_92.jpg

Dave

[airbornelawyer]

5. Patch of the COE of the EMMOE, the Military Mountain and Special Operations School (Escuela Militar de Montaña y de Operaciones Especiales) in Jaca. This company was in existence from 1981 to 1996.

http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/Elite_Unit_Insignia/ES_COE_EMMOE.jpg

6. Two patches for the Spanish Legion (the Legión), formerly the Spanish Foreign Legion. On the right is the patch of the Legion's 2nd Tercio (Tercio "Duque de Alba" 2º de la Legión), based in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the coast of Morocco. On the left is the patch of the BOEL, the Bandera de Operaciones Especiales de la Legión , the Legion's special operations unit.

http://home.att.net/~ordersandmedals2/Elite_Unit_Insignia/ES_LE_patches.jpg

Regards,
Dave

[SF Trainee]

Man, I caught this thread way too late.

Airbornelawyer, your pics bring out a distant memory regarding the COE in Spain from '93. Whilst I was in Majorca, Spain, I met a member of the COE who, in friendship, gave me his unit patch. Being an idiot, I gave it away about three years later.

But, to describe it to you it looked like the round red patch you have here. The background, however, was green. It had the golden wreath (yellow) and the ever-present Aitor "Oso Negro" knife. The one difference was that it had, what seemed like a Great White Shark kind of swimming around the knife. It said "Compania Operaciones Especiales" on the border (just like the red patch in your pic).

That COE unit was then-based out of Mallorca, but, a friend who happens to be a captain in the Spanish Army has told me that they have since either disbanded the unit, or moved them. I believe those folks were combat swimmers.

Damn, I wish I would have kept the patch. That same trip I came across some SBS guys, but that was in Plymouth, England, in a Royal Navy Submarine base ... but, that's another story.