Master Patch Guide

The developer of Master Patch Guide, Ross Ford, has been a military enthusiast since his youth. He began collecting in 1941 when visiting Fort Dix with his dad and a staff officer of the 44th Infantry Div. NJ, NG. By the end of WWII the collection included 200+ patches and has grown to over 5,000. Ross Ford

1941 Ft. Dix. NJ 44th Inf. Div.During his secondary school years in NJ he was a member of a horse mounted Cavalry unit, the Junior Essex Troop. He attended Virginia Military Institute and then Lehigh University. As an R.O.T.C. cadet he was a member and CO of Pershing Rifles and of Scabbard & Blade, national military honor society.

He was the Cadet Colonel and CO of the Army ROTC regiment, and a Distinguished Military Graduate. Commissioned in June 1955, he served in the 2nd Armored Division in Germany 1956 and 1957, and in the Army Reserve in the early 1960’s, resigning as a Captain. Ross has been a member of the American Society of Military Insignia1956 Germany 2nd Amd. Div. Collectors for almost five decades and for the past two years has been dedicated to developing the Master Patch Guide database program that he, other collectors, and military enthusiasts can utilize to identify insignia and to catalog their collections.

Ross demonstrating the Master Patch Guide to a new collector at ASMIC 2006.Over the past several years the collection has primarily focused on the shoulder sleeve insignia of the U. S. Army (including the Army Air Corp and Army Air Force), Army Reserves, and Army National Guard. He also possesses many “unauthorized” Army unit shoulder sleeve insignia and “pocket patches” as well as the shoulder sleeve insignia of the Marine Corps and Navy.