Air Force Reserve Command Patch

On 17 February 1997 the Air Force Reserve became Air Force Reserve Command, the ninth major command of the U.S. Air Force, and its emblem changed by a single word. The scroll that had read AIR FORCE RESERVE picked up COMMAND, and the rest of the design stayed as it was. The command goes back to 21 June 1968, when the Air Force Reserve was established as a separate operating agency to take over from Continental Air Command. It has been headquartered at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, since 1 August 1968. Gen. Ronald R. Fogleman presided over the 1997 ceremony that made it a major command.

The change came out of the fiscal year 1997 National Defense Authorization Act, signed on 23 September 1996, which directed the services to stand up reserve commands. In the same realignment the Air Reserve Personnel Center moved from the Office of Air Force Reserve in the Pentagon to AFRC as a direct reporting unit. The 1991 Gulf War had already moved the Reserve from standing by for contingencies to handing combat-ready forces straight to the warfighter. Some of its wings carry missions few people outside the Air Force know about. The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron of the 403rd Wing, the Hurricane Hunters, flies the WC-130J Super Hercules into storms, and the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Ohio flies the C-130 for the Defense Department's only large-area, fixed-wing aerial spray mission.

The patch is a 3 by 3 inch shield in Air Force blue with a gold border and a cut edge that follows the outline. A pair of gold wings rises from a gold ring at the base and sweeps up to meet at the top, framing a white eagle with its wings spread and a green sprig in its beak. Inside the ring sits a white star with a red center. A silver scroll wraps the bottom of the shield with AIR FORCE RESERVE COMMAND stitched in blue block letters. The eagle and wings shield was approved for Continental Air Command on 27 July 1959 and has been the Reserve's mark since 1968.

A reservist's year runs on unit training assemblies, an annual tour and whatever orders come down in between. After the Gulf War that became a regular part of Reserve life, and the 1997 change to a major command caught up with what reservists were already doing. This blue shield is what they wore through all of it.

It fits a shadow box beside a set of aircrew wings and a retirement certificate, or the sleeve of a jacket worn to a wing reunion. It is also a good gift for a reservist wrapping up a career built on drill weekends and short-notice orders. One shield, one word added in 1997, and the same blue and gold the Reserve has carried since 1968.