Dobbins Air Force Base Fire Protection Patch

The base on this patch is named for Capt. Charles Dobbins, a Marietta pilot whose C-47 was shot down near Sicily on July 11, 1943, on his third paratrooper drop of the day. The field outside Marietta, Georgia, took his name in 1950 as Dobbins Air Force Base. It became Dobbins Air Reserve Base in June 1992. The base sits in Cobb County, about 20 miles northwest of Atlanta. Its fire department protects the runway, the flying units and everyone who works on the installation.

Next door is the aircraft plant that built B-29 Superfortresses for Bell during World War II, with the first test flight in November 1943. Lockheed took it over in 1951 and built B-47s there, then the C-130 Hercules, the C-141 Starlifter and the C-5 Galaxy. The Navy moved Naval Air Station Atlanta onto the field in 1957, and the base was Dobbins Joint Air Reserve Base from 2003 until NAS Atlanta closed on September 29, 2009. Today the host unit is the 94th Airlift Wing of Air Force Reserve Command, flying C-130 Hercules, and the base is also home to Twenty-Second Air Force headquarters. Under the base's current structure, the 94th Airlift Wing provides fire protection to the base and its tenant units.

This is a 4 inch round patch on black twill with a yellow merrowed border. DOBBINS AFB arcs across the top in yellow and FIRE PROTECTION runs around the bottom, with a thin yellow ring inside. In the center a silver eagle spreads its wings in front of a pair of gold wings, standing on a gray disc. On the disc is a red cluster of crossed fire tools, ladder, axes and pike pole, the working gear of the fire service. The lettering uses the AFB name the base carried from 1950 until 1992, and the patch has a sew-on backing.

A fire department on a flying base works two jobs at once: the buildings and housing on one side, the runway and crash rescue on the other. At Dobbins that has meant a busy shared airfield, with Air Force, Navy, Army Guard and the Lockheed plant all using the same runways at different points in its history. The crews train for the day an aircraft comes in on fire and hope it never comes.

It belongs in a shadow box with a fire department badge or a 94th Airlift Wing patch, or on the jacket of a retired Air Force firefighter. It also makes a good gift for a firefighter who started out at Dobbins and went on to a city department. Black, yellow and silver, from Marietta.