NORAD & USNORTHCOM Joint Operations Center

NORAD & U.S. Northern Command Joint Operations Center (N-NC JOC, "the watch floor") · JOINT · 2006-present

Worn by service members on the watch floor, this patch belongs to the Joint Operations Center of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. NORAD, the binational U.S.-Canadian command formalized on 12 May 1958, was joined at Peterson by USNORTHCOM when the homeland-defense command stood up on 1 October 2002; in 2006 the two consolidated their separate watch centers into a single integrated command center in the headquarters building, leaving Cheyenne Mountain as the alternate site on warm standby. The crossed American and Canadian flags over a North American globe and an upright sword mark that partnership, and the JOC crews have held the watch around the clock ever since — no holidays, no dark hours.