Braxton Taylor
No matter what happens during the regular college football season, the winner of the annual Army-Navy Game is never guaranteed. What is guaranteed when these two teams meet on the second Saturday in December is that they will both come with new, unique uniforms, ones that honor a significant aspect of their respective services’ history. The 2024 Army-Navy Game, the 125th in the series, will be no different.
In late November, Army and Navy, respectively, released what this season’s Army-Navy Game uniforms will look like — and, most importantly, what those new uniforms represent.
When the teams take the field on Dec. 14, the Black Knights will sport black uniforms with white markings that honor the 101st Airborne Division, specifically its World War II actions during the 1944 Battle of the Bulge. The Midshipmen will also look back on World War II, honoring VF-61, the fighter squadron known as the Jolly Rogers, the most lethal squadron in the history of naval aviation.
World War II history buffs and fans of the HBO series “Band of Brothers” will be familiar with the 101st Airborne’s heroic stand at Bastogne in December 1944. The Germans launched a surprise offensive on Dec. 16, throwing more than 400,000 men into a thrust through the Ardennes Forest intended to destroy four Allied armies and retake the critical port of Antwerp. The 101st rushed to the Belgian city of Bastogne, which was not only an important crossroads for the Germans, but it also was critical to the success of their overall offensive.
For three weeks, the paratroopers of the 101st held the town in the face of 54,000 enemy troops, according to an Army press release. The German Army’s advance was halted well short of its objective and was pushed back, having never captured Bastogne. The siege of the city was relieved when Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army reached the 101st on Dec. 26, 1944.
The Black Knights’ Army-Navy Game uniforms honor the memory of the 101st with a helmet that reads “Screaming Eagles,” a nod to the 101st’s now-iconic shoulder patch. They also feature an invasion star on the right shoulder, the coppered Athena shield, and actual 101st Airborne Screaming Eagle patch and random markings like those used by the paratroopers to identify their units during their D-Day operations.
Navy’s uniform also hearkens back to World War II, when the U.S. Navy established Fighter Squadron 17 (VF-17), which began its life flying the F4U-1 Corsair fighter, in 1943. Its first commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. John T. “Tommy” Blackburn, wanted a pirate theme to match his squadron to the fighter (“corsair” is just an old nautical term for “pirate”), so his men came up with the skull and crossbones insignia and called themselves “the Jolly Rogers.”
By the end of the war, VF-17 was the deadliest squadron in naval aviation, notching more than 150 kills in the Pacific Theater of the war, according to a Navy press release. VF-17 was redesignated as VF-5B in 1946 and then to VF-61 in 1948 before being decommissioned in 1959. The rich history and tradition of the Jolly Rogers meant that the Navy would soon revive the unit. “The Bones” have flown nine different aircraft over the course of 63 years.
The Midshipmen will be sporting a uniform color that mimics the color of the Jolly Rogers aircraft, with a neckline that sports the color of the Jolly Rogers insignia. Its collar striping matches the stripe found on the edge of the VF-17’s tail fins. The uniform sleeve also has the Jolly Rogers stripe and its pant legs have nine chevrons, representing the nine aircraft flown by the unit.
Army will be coming into the annual Army-Navy Game after playing against Tulane’s Green Wave for the American Athletic Conference championship on Dec. 6. Whether they win or lose the AAC championship, the Black Knights will still have a lot on the line. They have won the last two meetings with the Midshipmen, but the Mids lead the series, 62-55-7.
The Black Knights will also be playing to retain the coveted Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, which is awarded to the service academy team with the best record against the other two. Both Navy and Army trounced Air Force earlier in the season.
The 125th annual Army-Navy Game kicks off at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 3 p.m. and will be aired on CBS.
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