Tactical Air Command Patch

Tactical Air Command was activated on March 21, 1946, and for 46 years it was the Air Force's home for tactical fighters until it was inactivated on June 1, 1992 and its resources went into Air Combat Command. Its first headquarters was MacDill Field, Florida, and on May 26, 1946 it moved to Langley in Virginia, where it stayed for the rest of its life. The Ninth and Twelfth Air Forces served under TAC, along with the Nineteenth from 1955 to 1973 and the First from 1985 to 1992. Gen. John M. Loh took command in March 1991 and became the first commander of Air Combat Command when TAC stood down. If you crewed, maintained, flew or supported tactical jets in those years, TAC was your command.

The aircraft list reads like a history of American fighter aviation. F-100 Super Sabres deployed to Europe during the 1961 Berlin Crisis, and the F-105 Thunderchief, the Thud, carried the fight in Southeast Asia. F-4C Phantom IIs entered TAC service in November 1963. The first F-15A Eagle went to the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing at Langley in November 1974, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, the Warthogs, arrived at Myrtle Beach AFB in March 1977, and the F-16 Fighting Falcon entered service at Hill AFB, Utah, in January 1979. TAC also flew the F-111, and in its last weeks four F-117 Nighthawks were assigned to Holloman AFB.

The patch is a 3 inch shield with a white cut edge that follows its outline. The upper field is light blue and the lower field is red, divided by a notched line like the top of a castle wall. Gold wings with orange detail sweep up from the center, and a silver sword stands between them point down, its grip wrapped in red and black. A white scroll with gold trim curls around the base of the shield, lettered TACTICAL AIR COMMAND in gold. The colors are bold and the lines are clean, the shield every TAC airman saw on the gate, the flight line and his own shoulder.

TAC units deployed to bases in South Vietnam and Thailand and spent roughly a decade flying over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, with the last units withdrawn from Southeast Asia by the end of 1975. In August 1990 the 1st TFW sent F-15Cs to Dhahran in the first days of Desert Shield. When Desert Storm opened on January 17, 1991, F-117s struck Baghdad and A-10s went to work for the troops on the ground. It was the command's last war, fought with the aircraft and the crews it had trained for years. When the colors were cased in 1992, the airmen of TAC went into Air Combat Command and kept flying the same jets.

Put it in a shadow box with your wing patch, your squadron patch and a photo of the jet you flew or turned. It also works on the jacket or vest you wear to a wing reunion, or as a gift for a father who spent his career under that shield. The iron-on backing holds it, and it can be sewn on for a permanent hold. Forty-six years of tactical air, on one shield.