Where Did Patches Come From? Very often they came from little shops in foreign ports. Someone on the ship drew a design. It was taken to a local embroidery shop on a street like this one in Yokosuka, Japan: And the shop looked like this: In this photo can be seen many patches including ones for USS Orleck (DD-886), USS Frontier (AD-25, DesRon 19, and DesRon 25. (Photos from the 1958 USS Hornet (CVA-12) cruise book)