By KATHERINE HAFNERTHE VIRGINIAN-PILOT |JUN 26, 2020 AT 9:49 AM
Aviators in a small training detachment aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford were recently counseled by leadership after wearing an unauthorized and inappropriate patch, the Navy said.
Half of the patch, according to a photo on Twitter, included the aircraft carrier’s logo with the words “America’s Newest Carrier” and “Integrity at the Helm.” The other half, however, depicted an image of a bat with the words “China’s Newest Carrier,” a reference to one theory about the origins of the novel coronavirus.
“The patch in question was inappropriate and not consistent with uniform regulations, which state patches must be appropriate in nature and approved by commanding officers,” Cmdr. Jennifer Cragg, spokeswoman for Naval Air Force Atlantic, said in an email Thursday.
Hey @USNavy, this doesn’t seem to align w @USNavyCNO‘s recent words against racism … dumbass JOs. pic.twitter.com/t93nUxfedm— Lady McMuffin (@McmuffinLady) June 23, 2020
Officials became aware of the patch a week ago, Cragg said in the email. It’s unclear where it came from.
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“The small number of aviators who had the patch were counseled, and leadership made clear to everyone in the squadron that the patch was not authorized for wear,” she said.
The Ford, based in Norfolk and commissioned in 2017, is the first of its class and has been intermittently underway for carrier qualifications over the past few months.
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Katherine Hafner is an enterprise reporter for The Pilot who writes about everything from dinosaurs to day cares to oyster reefs built of coal ash. She’s a UCLA alum who joined the paper in 2015.