P-3 Orion Navy Anti-Submarine Patrol Patch

The P-3 Orion carried a long stinger on its tail for one reason: the magnetic anomaly detector inside it could pick up the disturbance a submerged steel hull makes in the earth's magnetic field. The boom kept that sensor away from the airplane's own metal and electronics. Lockheed built the Orion on the airframe of its L-188 Electra airliner, and the prototype first flew on 19 August 1958. Four Allison T56 turboprops gave it the endurance to stay on station for hours over open water. This patch is for the patrol crews who flew it hunting submarines for close to six decades.

Fleet deliveries began in August 1962, when VP-8 and VP-44 at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, took the first P-3As. Two months later P-3As were flying blockade patrols near Cuba. From 1964 Orions flew Operation Market Time coastal patrols out of the Philippines and South Vietnam to cut off Viet Cong resupply by sea, and two P-3Bs were lost on that mission in 1968. In Desert Storm, P-3Cs flew coastal surveillance ahead of the strikes and were credited with targeting 55 of the 108 Iraqi vessels destroyed. Ten P-3As and two EP-3Bs became EP-3E Aries electronic reconnaissance aircraft, and twelve P-3Cs were later converted as the EP-3E Aries II.

The patch is 4.5 by 3.25 inches, cut in the curved-top, curved-bottom shape sailors know from rating patches, with a navy blue merrowed edge. "UNITED STATES NAVY" runs across the top in navy letters on a gold band. In the navy blue center a white Orion banks across the field between a big white "P" and "3," with all four propellers stitched on the wings. "Navy Anti-Submarine Patrol" sits under the airplane in white script, and "P-3 ORION" fills the gold band along the bottom. Navy blue, gold and a white airplane are all it needs.

A P-3C crew ran to 11, down from 12 after the in-flight ordnanceman position was eliminated in the early 2000s, and those crews flew together until they could work a contact without much talk. Pilots, flight engineers, sensor operators and the maintainers on the line kept the airplanes up through deployment after deployment. Active-duty P-3C service ended in May 2020, when VP-40 completed its transition to the Boeing P-8A Poseidon, and the last active-duty P-3C went to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. VQ-1 retired its final EP-3E and P-3C in February 2025. The P-8 has the mission now, but the Orion is the airplane a generation of patrol aviators learned it on.

Put it in a shadow box with your squadron patch and a crew photo, or on the vest you wear to VP reunions. It is also a good gift for a son or grandson who has heard about the long patrols over water. Measures 4.5 x 3.25 inches with a merrowed edge and iron-on backing, and it can also be sewn on. It is a plain tribute to the airplane active-duty patrol squadrons flew from 1962 to 2020.