Wood Badge Patrol Colors

[Owl62]

Does anyone know if there are designated "official" colors for Wood Badge Patrols?

 

I have seen a couple of different lists of colors for the patrols. The most recent is:

 

Beaver: Blue/Yellow

Bobwhite: White/Khaki

Eagle: Green/Black

Fox: Green/Yellow (Was told just green)

Owl: Blue/Blue (But I was also told Blue/Yellow or just blue)

Bear: Brown/Red

Buffalo: Red/White (Was told just purple)

Antelope: Khaki/Green

 

Apparently the colors go back to a time when patrols wore colored ribbon on their uniforms to denote their patrols.

 

Are there any official Wood Badge Patrol Colors today?

 

Thanks.

 

[SueM]

I am trying to remember but I -think- that on the first day of our course, we WERE issued ribbons in those colors when we checked in and we used them as a means of identifying each other as patrol members.

 

sue m.

[John-in-KC]

Each of the "troop issued" patrol flags had a color on weekend one. FWIW, our Owl flag was green.

 

Rest assured our patrol flag had absolutely no resemblance to the "troop issued" flag on weekend two.

 

John

A Good Old Owl Too

C-40-05(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[t158sm]

Some of the colors and critters you mention match up to what the old patrol emblems looked like before the last uniform change.

i.e. owl - blue yellow

But, others don't match.

I'm at a loss as to Wood Badge traditions much before the 1970's

[Owl62]

I got the following Wood Badge Patrol colors from another source:

 

Beaver: Red

Bobwhite: Orange

Eagle: Yellow

Fox: Green

Owl: Blue

Bear: Black

Buffalo: Purple

Antelope: Brown

 

 

[LindaBob]

Owl62,

Your last post matched up with my recent Wood Badge class, except that we also had a Raven patrol, which used the color white.

[JFL49]

The Gilwell.com web site gives a good overview of patrol ribbons and the colors assigned to each patrol:

 

http://www.gilwell.com/patrolPatch/

http://www.gilwell.com/patrolPatch/ribbons.htm

 

The listing on the web site shows many patrols and is not limited to the 8 Wood Badge critters in use in the US today.

 

 

 

 

[LindaBob]

Thanks so much for the links, JFL...very interesting!

[LindaBob]

Thanks so much for the links, JFL...very interesting!

[Doug Walker]

Hmmm Interesting...

 

Am in the training now...

 

Beaver: Lt. Blue

Bobwhite: Blue

Eagle: Red

Fox: Tan

Owl: Black

Bear: (can't remember)

Buffalo: Dark Blue

Antelope: YELLOW

 

Doug

"I used to be an Antelope, a good ole' Antelope too... "

 

[John-in-KC]

In other words, there appears to be no standard whatsoever.

[emb021]

AFAIK, there are no official WB Patrol colors in the US WB courses, and never were.

 

The use of colors to identify patrols was done in the early years of scouting. Usually 2 colors were used, which were what was used for the patrol flashes (color tab pinned to the shoulder seam).

 

With the advent of patrol medallions, these colors went by the side. In some other countries they continued to use the colors, and I think some countries even incorporated these patrol colors into their patrol medallions.

 

If there were official patrol colors, these would be specified in the WB staff guide. They aren't.

 

[leebear]

There are no Official Wood Badge Patrol colors. There are various traditions that have been adopted by different areas in the country.

[JFL49]

The Boy Scout Handbook, First Edition (1911) identifies various patrols by name AND BY COLOR. That seems to make it as "official" as you can get.

 

Patrol information starts on page 37 of the printed edition. To view this book on-line or to download a copy, see this link, for example:

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29558

 

The same information can be found in the 1920 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook, starting at page 71. Search for the book here:

 

http://books.google.com

 

Given that the color system was devised as a means of identification of Boy Scout Patrols, there was no need for Wood Badge to reinvent the method of patrol identification. The lack of guidance in the Wood Badge Admin Guide or Staff Guide is interesting but also irrelevant.

 

What is interesting is LindaBob's comment about a Raven Patrol in a recent Wood Badge course. The Admin Guide is very clear about that: no more than 8 patrols may comprise a Wood Badge course, and no patrol names other than the 8 official patrol names may be used.

 

[jhankins]

I've never gotten a straight forward answer about why can't have more than 8 patrols (but you can have more than 6 in a patrol if necessary...). Something in my mind tells me it's a monetary reason, but I've not heard that from the horse's mouth.