This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

FDNY Patches by Tod Heisler/New York Times
Regarding this NY Times article, Firefighters’ Symbol of Pride Gets Image Upgrade I wonder who exactly thinks this is a good idea? As is evident I have a real interest in FDNY heraldry and history, so what is distressing is thischange represents a real death of history right before our eyes.
Adam Greenfield has an excellent point about this, so I will quote at length:

But anybody who’s ever spent time in any kind of uniformed service will understand immediately and intimately how crucial elements like unique insignia, heraldry, and slogans are to small-unit cohesion – how displays of unit pride that seem trivial or silly to outsiders function to hold a group together under pressure, and how easily morale can be crushed when they’re taken away. I can’t imagine that the nominal offense caused by allowing a stationhouse to dub itself “Southern Comfort” outweighs the benefit to the community inherent in that stationhouse having a vivid sense of itself and its heritage of service.
More importantly still, names like these are part of the swagger, the vigor and the vibrancy of the city I love – I’d almost say, of any city worth loving. If the suits and quants upstairs decree that “professionalizing” the Fire Department means that a hook-and-ladder company can no longer dub itself the Happy Hookers, I’m not really sure who benefits from it, but I’ll tell you who loses out: we do. Our city is subtly but immeasurably the poorer for it. And if you don’t like it, I’m sure you’ll feel at home in plenty of other places – Salt Lake City comes to mind, or Colorado Springs. This is New York, baby.

Adam was a PSYOP sergeant in the US Army Special Operations Command, so his point about unit cohesion is as well taken as his point about the blanding of New York City.