Naval Air Station Agana Guam Patch

The red gate behind the palm on this patch is a torii, the traditional Japanese gateway, and the motto stitched under it spells out the idea: GATEWAY TO THE ORIENT. Naval Air Station Agana was the Navy's airfield on Guam, the American island in the Marianas that faces Asia across the Philippine Sea. The Japanese Navy built the first strip around 1943 as Guam Number 2. American forces captured it when they retook Guam in 1944 and named it Agana Airfield for the town nearby, and the Navy took it over in 1947. In 1973 the field was named Brewer Field in honor of Commander Charles W. Brewer.

The Seventh Air Force repaired the field in October 1944, and B-24 Liberators of the 11th Bombardment Group flew from Guam until the group moved up to Okinawa in July 1945. In 1971 Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One, VQ-1, moved its homeport to NAS Agana. VQ-1 flew the EA-3B Skywarrior and the EP-3 Aries from the island and took delivery of its first EP-3E Aries II in 1991. The 1993 Base Realignment and Closure round recommended closing the station, VQ-1 shifted to NAS Whidbey Island in 1994, and NAS Agana closed in 1995. Its runways now serve Guam's civilian Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport.

The patch is a triangle 4.5 inches wide by 4 inches tall, with a gold merrowed edge and an iron-on backing. Inside the gold, a royal blue border frames a white field. NAS sits in gold at the top point, a green palm rises through the center in front of the red-orange torii, and AGANA and GUAM stand on either side of the trunk. A blue panel across the base carries GATEWAY TO THE ORIENT in gold capitals. The palm is the island and the gate is the way west, which is the whole story of the station in two pieces of thread.

For the sailors and families who drew Guam orders, Agana was the Navy's front door in the Western Pacific. Reconnaissance crews launched from its runway on long tracks over open ocean, and transient aircraft bound for Asia stopped there to refuel. Guam sits in typhoon country, and the station rode out its share of storms. When it closed in 1995, the field passed to the island, and the airport that grew from it still carries islanders and service members in and out. Anyone who checked in at Agana knows exactly what that motto meant.

Frame it in a shadow box with your VQ-1 or Western Pacific patches, or iron it on a jacket you wear to squadron reunions. It also makes a good gift for a Navy family that spent a tour on Guam and still talks about it. At 4.5 inches across, the palm and gate read clearly from across a room. It is a small piece of the Marianas to keep.