"I Could Tell You, But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me."

On The Esoteric Iconography of the United States Intelligence Community

In the Top Secret world of the United States intelligence community, there exists a variety of highly esoteric military patches with hidden meanings known only to those involved. Most of these patches are from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), formed (like the NSA before them) via Secret Executive Order on September 6, 1961, but was virtually unknown until the 1990s. They pride themselves as “ruling the night,” and protecting the planet like a modern god. Their missions primarily have to do with constructing spy sattelites for Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), but are also known for building some of the most advanced cameras on the planet. Former AFOSI Special Agent Richard Doty stated that the NRO have their own cameras installed on every single NASA launch, which seems to be a mechanism for funneling classified matters of national security directly to them.

The curious patches below and the caption content are from journalist Trevor Paglen’s book, I Could Tell You, But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me (NY: Melville House Publishing, 2007).

NRO AMERICAN DRAGON PATCH. “DRAGON is a code name within the BYEMAN information compartment for the infrared imaging capabilities on CRYSTAL (advanced KH-11) reconnaissance satellites (Paglen, p. 133).

NRO TRIPLE SERPENT PATCH. Latin phrase is translated as “Never Before, Never Again.” Eleven stars can be seen, three of them corresponding to the serpents. Meaning is classified and unknown (Paglen, p. 131).

AF TENCAP SPECIAL APPLICATIONS. “TENCAP” means Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities, which involves the use of satellites to develop tactical battlefield applications. The translation of the phrase Oderint Dum Metuant is “Let them hate so long as they fear” (Paglen, p. 129).

CLASSIFIED FLIGHT TEST. The aircraft depicted is a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber with a Greek sigma sybol. The 509 represents the 509th Bomb Wing at Roswell Army Air Field who were responsible for retriving the Roswell UFO crash debris. The English translation of the Latin phrase is “Tastes like Chicken” (Paglen, p. 113).

GHOST SQUADRON. The translation is “A Secret Squadron from Deep in the Night. Don’t Ask Any Questions.” The patch was worn by an obscure USAF helicopter unit from Groom Lake/Area 51, as shown by the single star marking the state of Nevada. The unit was a search and rescue team for test squadrons flying classified aircraft (Paglen, p. 23).

NOYFB PATCH. From the Travis AFB 22nd Military Airlift Squadron in California which involved night operations, “NOYFB” means “None of Your F*cking Business” (Paglen, p. 101).

GREEN DOOR PATCH. A cryptic patch worn by an unknown, classified unit possibly in Colorado, New Mexico, or Nevada, as the red marking suggests. The green cloaked figure appears to be holding a dagger. The green door is likely a reference to an inaccessible place (Paglen, p. 35).

SI EGO CERTIOREM PATCH. A black project patch worn by Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Four (VX-4) based at Point Mugu, California. The Latin is unusually written in the passive voice, and is translated, “I could tell you, but then you would have to be destroyed by me” (Paglen, p. 135).