The Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (unit patch) worn by members of the North Carolina Army National Guard (ARNG) Element in the state’s National Guard Joint Force Headquarters (HQ) was first approved on 22 May 1953 for HQ and HQ Detachment, North Carolina National Guard. The insignia was redesignated with an amended description for HQ, State Area Command, North Carolina ARNG on 30 December 1983. It was given its current designation—NC ARNG Element, Joint Force HQ—on 1 October 2003.
Officially, the NC ARNG Element, JFHQ unit patch is based upon the unit crest approved for all Regiments and separate Battalion in the North Carolina National Guard. The crest features the image of a hornet’s nest with thirteen hornets swarming about and on it. But it could just as easily be said to borrow from the first flag of North Carolina, which had a hornet’s nest and the date May 20, 1775 inscribed on it.
The date marks North Carolina’s declaration of independence from Great Britain, while the hornet’s nest is a reference to a remark made by British General Charles Cornwallis following the Battle of Charlotte. It was a relatively small fight in which the American forces’ guerilla-style tactics did not achieve victory, but they did inflict far greater casualties on the British forces, leading Cornwallis to declare Charlotte and Mecklenburg Country a “hornet’s nest of rebellion,” or something to that effect as there is no extant written record of the General writing or saying those exact words.
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