Vintage 1960s Army R.O.T.C. Decal 🎖️ Embla Crest Torch Foil Sticker, Unopened

Remember Army ROTC Decals? 🔥 Army R.O.T.C. Torch Decal, Embla Crest, Sealed on Its Card

Size: 3 1/4" ~ Factory sealed, little to no wear. ~ It is unknown if the adhesive still works, as that is usually the first thing to fail.

Embla Crest, a rare vintage 1960s Army R.O.T.C. decal, is a highly collectible item. Factory sealed. These are likely the last of their kind in the world, serving as a poignant reminder of a time when we celebrated our community and their contributions. Nobody's printing these 49- and 69-cent cards anymore, and once the sealed ones are gone, they will be very difficult to acquire.

It's a flaming torch in silver foil, the torch of knowledge, over three bands of color, with ARMY and R.O.T.C. along the bottom.

It is unknown if the adhesive still works, as that is usually the first thing to fail. It may require assistance, also known as glue, to affix. Little to no wear.

🏷️ What's Printed on It

• ARMY R.O.T.C.
• Card: EMBLA CREST, EASY TO APPLY-SELF-STICK, 49¢ or 69¢

These came on hang cards of different colors and prices, pale green at 49 cents, salmon at 69 cents, and yellow. The printings vary a touch too. The decals on the salmon cards have a deeper navy blue up top. The card you get may differ from the one in the close-up.

🔥 The Torch of Knowledge Patch

The design is the Army ROTC shoulder patch of its day. Will Fowler's book American Military Insignia lays out the history. ROTC had three patches. The first was a shield, and in the 1950s it was changed to a red, white and blue patch with the torch of knowledge, the one on these decals. By the time Fowler wrote in 1990, the current patch had moved on to a sword design.

The torch never went away. Under Cadet Command's uniform regulation, Basic Course cadets wear the torch of knowledge on a disk on their collars, the ROTC lapel button is a torch in front of a panel lettered R.O.T.C., and the Advanced Course cap badge is an eagle with a rayed torch on the shield on its breast.

🎓 How ROTC Came to Be

The Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps is the college program that trains students to become commissioned officers in the United States Army. The idea goes back to 1819, when Alden Partridge founded Norwich University to train citizen soldiers, and the Morrill Act of 1862 required the new land-grant colleges to teach military tactics. In 1915 Major General Leonard Wood started military training camps for civilians. The next year a delegation from Ohio, including Ohio State University president William Oxley Thompson, urged Congress to set up ROTC, and on February 7, 1916 Ralph D. Mershon, an Ohio State graduate and engineer, testified before the committee. Congress agreed, ROTC went into the National Defense Act of 1916, and the first unit started at Harvard that same year. In 2020, 70 percent of the Army's newly commissioned active-duty officers came up through ROTC.

📜 The 1960s on Campus

The decade on these cards was a big one for ROTC. At many colleges every male student had to take ROTC, and that was common until the 1960s. Enrollment was falling, and Congress answered with the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964, which President Lyndon Johnson signed. It created Army ROTC scholarships and added a two-year program for students who missed the first two years. Then came the Vietnam-era protests. Schools moved to voluntary programs, and some pushed ROTC off campus altogether.

🏷️ Embla Crest

Embla Crest sold self-stick emblems for the armed services, states, lodges and the professions on little hang cards. I have one Embla Crest card that prints the Atlantic Emblem name and Walterboro right under the Embla Crest banner, as Atlantic Emblem Co. of Walterboro, South Carolina. It carries a five-digit ZIP code, so it dates to July 1963 or later, and an 803 phone number from before the Lowcountry moved to 843 in 1998. Walterboro has its own military history. The Walterboro Army Airfield opened there in 1942, and more than 500 of the Tuskegee Airmen trained at it between April 1944 and October 1945.

🏡 Display

It's a great gift for a cadet, a new second lieutenant or a proud ROTC family, and it looks sharp framed on its card in a dorm or an office.

Please refer to the pictures. It provides details and is considered part of the description for you.

This little piece of vintage memorabilia is ready to make your room a whole lot more fun!