Pacific Air Forces PACAF Patch

Pacific Air Forces took that name on July 1, 1957, but the command's line runs back to Far East Air Forces, activated at Brisbane, Australia, in August 1944. For a little over a year after the war it carried a different title, Pacific Air Command, United States Army, from December 6, 1945, to January 1, 1947. Then it went back to Far East Air Forces, and a decade later it became PACAF. Its headquarters sits at Hickam, now part of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

When North Korea invaded on June 25, 1950, Far East Air Forces went to war with F-80 Shooting Stars, F-82 Twin Mustangs, B-26 Invaders and B-29 Superfortresses, and its Fifth Air Force carried the heaviest load of the air war. From late 1951 into 1953 the F-80 and F-82 units changed over to the F-86 Sabre. In Vietnam, the 2d Air Division was activated in 1962 to run the air effort in the South, and Seventh Air Force replaced it in 1966. PACAF combat aircraft flew their last strikes, over Cambodia, on August 15, 1973. Today the command holds Fifth Air Force at Yokota, Seventh Air Force at Osan and Eleventh Air Force at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, with wings at Kadena, Misawa, Kunsan, Eielson and Andersen on Guam.

The patch is a shield 3 inches wide by 3 inches tall, cut edge, outlined in gold. A blue field holds a white-gridded globe with four gold stars on it. A gold wing sweeps up and over the globe, with a sprig of gold leaves along its lower edge. A silver scroll across the bottom reads PACIFIC AIR FORCES in blue letters. The backing is iron-on, and it sews on just as well.

PACAF duty meant the far end of the supply line. Airmen rotated through Osan and Kunsan on remote tours, stood alert at Kadena and Misawa, and spent winters at Eielson and Elmendorf where the cold was its own mission. Families moved to Yokota, Hickam and Andersen and learned the Pacific a base at a time. The command has flown through two wars on the Asian mainland and decades of readiness since. If you wore this shield, you know how far apart those bases are.

Frame it with your wing and squadron patches from Kadena, Osan or Elmendorf, or put it on the jacket you wear to a reunion. It also makes a good gift for a parent or grandparent who served a Pacific tour. Three inches of shield, and the whole Pacific behind it.