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For what it's worth, the SF patch and the SOCOM patch are two different things. The SF patch is the arrowhead with 3 lightning bolts over a V-42 commando knife in the middle (the "electric butter knife".)
The SOCOM patch is an oval with a spearhead in the middle and a wreath around the outside (at least, they tell me it's a wreath - I always thought it was the rope used to tie the hands of the people actually fighting the war.)
I don't know what the rules are now, but back in the early days of the war, you could get a SF patch by being attached to an SF unit for 30 days. All kinds of people would finagle a 30 day vacation at our firebase (loggies, ETTs, medical types, etc.) so that they could get the patch. No biggie there - a ton of support folks assigned to the SOTF got it too.
All kinds of non-SOF qualified folks deploy for SOCOM too, so all either patch tells you about someone is that they happened to be assigned or attached to a SOF unit downrange.
And, really, all the patch actually tells you is that someone had $3.98 to spend at Ranger Joe's.
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