90th Missile Wing Global Strike Challenge 2010 Patch

On the evening of November 17, 2010, in Hoban Hall at Barksdale Air Force Base, the 90th Missile Wing from F.E. Warren AFB was named the best ICBM wing in Air Force Global Strike Command and took home the Blanchard Trophy. It was the first Global Strike Challenge, and the Mighty Ninety did not stop at one trophy. The wing also won Best ICBM Operations, the Blackburn Trophy for best ICBM maintenance, and Best ICBM Electro Mechanical Team. This patch carries the wing's number and the year, 90 MW and 2010. The grim reaper in the middle needs no explanation to a missileer.

The competition goes back to April 1967, when Strategic Air Command ran the first one, Curtain Raiser, to pick the best ICBM wing. It became Olympic Arena in 1969, and after the Cold War it was renamed Guardian Challenge and opened to space operations units. On December 1, 2009, the ICBM force moved from Air Force Space Command to Air Force Global Strike Command, and the missile competition was folded into the Global Strike Challenge alongside the bomber wings. In 2010 the 509th Bomb Wing from Whiteman took the Fairchild Trophy as best bomb wing, the 7th Bomb Wing from Dyess took the Ellis Giant Sword for bomber maintenance, and the 91st Missile Wing at Minot and 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom took ICBM event awards of their own. The 90th won the Blanchard again in 2011.

The patch is a 4 inch circle of black twill with a red merrowed border. GLOBAL STRIKE CHALLENGE arcs across the top in white block letters, and the motto DOMINATING THE SPECTRUM OF CONFLICT runs around the bottom. Inside a red ring, a blue map of North America sits on black, crossed with dashed white lines. Over it a grim reaper in a red hooded robe swings a white scythe, with 90 MW stitched in gold at the lower left and 2010 in gold at the upper right. It has a hook backing that attaches to any loop panel, so it can go on a flight suit, a range bag or a plate carrier.

The 90th Missile Wing has been at F.E. Warren since July 1963, first with Minuteman I and since the 1970s with the LGM-30G Minuteman III. Its 319th, 320th and 321st Missile Squadrons keep 150 Minuteman III missiles on alert around the clock under Twentieth Air Force. From 1986 to 2005 the wing's 400th Strategic Missile Squadron also ran the LGM-118 Peacekeeper, the only Peacekeeper squadron in the Air Force. Winning the Blanchard means the crews in the capsules, the maintainers on the road to the launch facilities and the security forces on the fence all scored at the top together. The wing motto is Impavide, undauntedly.

It fits a shadow box next to a missile badge and a pair of Warren crew wings, or on the bag of someone who pulled alerts out of Cheyenne in 2010. It is also a good gift for a missileer who was on the 2010 team. One wing, one year, one trophy.