A Company 2916th Aviation Battalion Desert Hawks 4 Stars Patch Hook Backing

The white helicopter riding between the stars at the top of this shield is a UH-60 Black Hawk, the aircraft the Desert Hawks of A Company, 2916th Aviation Battalion fly at the National Training Center. The 2916th is Fort Irwin's own aviation battalion, part of the 916th Support Brigade, and it keeps the air side of every NTC rotation running over the Mojave Desert. Alpha's main task is VIP transport, flying senior leaders out into the box several times a month. Rotational brigades come to Fort Irwin to fight a full-time opposing force, and the leaders watching that fight need a way to get out to it. Inside a battalion that calls itself the Raptors, Alpha took the hawk.

Alpha flies the UH-60L Black Hawk out of Barstow-Daggett Airport, with seven on hand as of 2025, after flying a mix of UH-72A Lakotas and UH-60s from 2011 to 2015. Its crews also fly air assault, resupply, reconnaissance and casualty evacuation missions, and they drop paratroopers. That work supports the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the Blackhorse, which plays the enemy at NTC. Bravo Company flies UH-72A Lakotas under the call sign Sokol as the enemy air threat, and Charlie Company is Desert Dustoff, the MEDEVAC company on call around the clock. B Company, 229th Aviation Regiment, the Flying Tigers, completes the battalion with the MQ-1C Gray Eagle.

This is a 3.25 by 4 inch shield with a cut edge that follows the shield and the scroll across its base. DESERT HAWKS runs across the top in red on a blue field, with four gold stars, each carrying small red lettering, and the white Black Hawk between them. Below, red and white stripes fill the shield, and a brown hawk dives across them with its wings swept back and talons forward. The white scroll at the bottom reads A, 2916th, CO in blue. The back is hook backing only, the hook side with no loop piece, so it presses straight onto a loop panel.

Nobody goes to NTC to see the 2916th, but every unit that rotates through depends on it. The Desert Hawks put commanders over the ground where their units are fighting, and when a rotation ends the crews get ready for the next one. The battalion flies year round in the heat, dust and wind that visiting units deal with for a few weeks at a time. Charlie Company's MEDEVAC coverage reaches past the training area into San Bernardino County, and in October 2021 a Desert Dustoff crew rescued a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet pilot in Death Valley National Park. This is support aviation, done every day of the year.

Put it on the loop panel of a flight bag, plate carrier or range bag, or set it in a shadow box beside the Desert Hawks Always Ready patch and a photo from the Barstow-Daggett flight line. It also makes a good gift for a crew chief or pilot who flew with Alpha. Hook side only, so it goes on and comes off as the job changes.