Southern Air Transport Aviation Patch

This Southern Air Transport patch marks the Miami cargo airline's part in the Desert Shield and Desert Storm airlift of 1990 and 1991. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United States began moving troops and equipment to the Persian Gulf, and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet was activated for the first time, bringing U.S. commercial airlines and their crews into the military airlift. Southern Air Transport, known as SAT, flew in that effort as a member of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet.

SAT's work during Desert Shield and Desert Storm drew wide recognition, and both the airline and its participating crew members received performance awards from the U.S. Air Force as members of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. Military charters were already a large part of SAT's business, alongside its commercial cargo flying, and the military share ran unusually high in 1990 because of the Gulf War.

SAT traces its start to 1947, when it began as a sole proprietorship of F. C. "Doc" Moor, a pilot who had flown for Pan Am and other airlines. The CIA bought the airline in 1960 and sold it to Stanley G. Williams at the end of 1973, and SAT went on as a cargo carrier whose fleet over the years included Lockheed L-100 Hercules, Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and Boeing 747 freighters. The company moved its base to Rickenbacker International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-1990s and filed for bankruptcy in October 1998.

The patch is round, with "SOUTHERN AIR TRANSPORT" across the top of a green outer band and "DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM 1990-1991" around the bottom, both in yellow lettering. The light blue center shows the white SAT "S" logo at the top, the flags of Kuwait and the United States side by side, a green sword beneath the flags, and three palm trees on tan desert dunes.

It measures 3 inches wide by 3 inches tall, with a yellow merrowed edge and an iron-on backing, and it can also be sewn on. It suits SAT crew members, mechanics and ground staff, Gulf War veterans who worked the airlift, and collectors of Civil Reserve Air Fleet and Desert Storm history, whether it goes on a flight jacket, a bag or into a shadow box.