NC State Alumni morale patches
~posted 04.01.2009

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Every Friday, members of the U.S. Air Force can wear morale patches on their flight suits. The 1-by-2-inch stitched, Velcro patches go on their left arm pockets and give a sense of their interests, such as sports teams, or signify their affiliations with organizations outside the military.

Lt. Jessica Hietpas ‘05 saw one of these patches this past year on a fellow pilot at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. It showed he was an alumnus of Texas A&M University.

“I thought, ‘Hey, that’s a great idea. Why don’t we [NC State alumni] have one?’ ” says Hietpas, who has been in the pilot-training program for the past three years. So she e-mailed Capt. Seth Hamilton, an educator officer at NC State’s Air Force ROTC detachment, suggesting a patch for NC State alumni who serve in the Air Force.

Hamilton liked the idea and passed it along to Cody Williams ‘07, assistant director of marketing and business relations at the Alumni Association. “NC State has a strong relationship with the armed forces, and the morale patches are another way we can maintain those connections.” Since last April, the Alumni Association has offered morale patches to alumni serving in the armed forces.

“They promote a sense of family,” says Hietpas, who moved to the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho in September. “I don’t know how many people went to NC State that I never would have known if not for the morale patches. . . . We’re always thrown into new environments, and it helps if us to pick out who is who and it helps us to start conversations.”

If you’re a member of the armed forces, you can receive a morale patch when you join the Alumni Association or renew your membership at www.alumni.ncsu.edu/moralepatch.