SAS Soldiers Ordered To Stop Wearing Punisher Badges Because Of Similarities With Hitler’s SS Death Head
SAS soldiers have been ordered to stop wearing the striking Punisher emblem on their uniforms because it bears too close of a resemblance to the chilling death head worn by Hitler’s dreaded SS.
Troops serving in Britain’s elite Special Air Service adopted the Punisher badge, which is a leering white skull on a black background, after fighting alongside U.S. Navy Seals in Iraq.
The skull logo was made popular by U.S. special forces who wear it on an unofficial basis as a nod to the titular Marvel Comics character. The Punisher, aka Frank Castle, is a former Marine who becomes a bloodthirsty vigilante hellbent on retribution after criminals murder his wife and children. The Punisher’s famous skull badge is usually the last thing his victims lay eyes upon before he takes their life.
The Express reports that troops are giving the emblem as a “badge of honor” after making their first combat kill. However SAS top brass has become wary of allowing their lads to wear the motif, after it was pointed out how closely it resembles emblems worn by the Nazis’ paramilitary organization — the SS.
An order has been put in place to ban any SAS member from wearing the Punisher badge, and it hasn’t been met well by the lads on the front line, who have branded it as another soul-zapping example of political correctness.
Apparently the order was given after Army chiefs paid a visit to the SAS’s base in Herefordshire and a complaint was made to a senior officer.
The ruling has apparently not been universally accepted, and an unidentified source has called it insane that an elite fighting force — who are expected to participate in extremely dangerous and violent missions across the globe — should be told to stop wearing a skull badge because it might upset certain people’s sensibilities.
“Every time a new guy comes in and gets a kill, he gets the badge. It’s in recognition of the work he has done. It’s not a celebration of taking a life but more to do with putting himself in a position where his own life has been put at risk. Yet we’ve been told that it could be upsetting to other units, disrespectful to enemy forces and could encourage war crimes by some of the foreign troops the SAS works with, such as Afghans and Iraqis,” the source explained.
Trevor Coult was a former sergeant in the SAS and won the Military Cross in Iraq. He has described the ruling as “completely ludicrous.” Coult, who heads a foundation called For Our Veterans, blasted the Ministry of Defence for not supporting the SAS in the field and opting to introduce petty rules and regulations about what the troops should and shouldn’t wear on operations.
