"THE ROCK PATCH"
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Bob Flynn

Thomas M. McNeill, a Pfc. in Company "G" was recuperating from malaria while on Mindoro Island following Corregidor,  and requested brushes and paint from an attendant nurse.  With Corregidor still fresh in his mind,  and thinking of an appropriate way to express the assault,  he painted a  design on the canvas of his barracks bag.

The design caught everyone's interest almost immediately and soon appeared outside "G" Company HQ. 

On 24 August 1945, Lt. Col. Ernest C. Clark authored an Official Commendation to McNeill that the Regimental Combat Team Commander, (at that point Lt. Col. Lawrie)  had received and commented "most favorably" on McNeil's excellent suggestion for the 503d R.C.T. insignia.

It's not the patch of a social club.

We were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for the Corregidor Operation because we were a Combat Team, not a social group. We were given the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation because we came to the aid of the Filipino people in a time of distress and not because we were a social group. 

The 503rd Regimental Combat Team was composed of warriors.  We were given a job to do, we did it, we buried our comrades, and we went home to resume productive lives as American citizens. We are bound together as brothers.  Plain, pure and simple.  We were chosen to do that which our country asked us to do and we got it done. 

Bob Flynn

In the time that I spent in uniform after being recalled to active duty for the Korean War, no one ever asked if it was officially approved.  I guess that there were so few of us that no one cared if it was officially approved or not.

Jack Herzig, "B" Co., 503d PRCT.