USA A-10 Thunderbolt II Flag Patch

Look where the engines sit on this patch, up on the back of the fuselage just ahead of the twin tails, because that one choice tells you what the A-10 was built to survive. The two General Electric TF34-GE-100 turbofans ride there so their exhaust passes over the tailplanes, which shields the heat signature from shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles. The placement also keeps them clear of debris kicked up on rough forward strips and lets crews rearm the jet with the engines still turning. Everything about the airplane follows that logic. It was designed to fly low and slow over a fight, take hits, and come home.

The YA-10 prototype first flew on 10 May 1972 with Howard "Sam" Nelson at the controls, and the A-10 reached initial operating capability in October 1977 with the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach AFB. It took its name from the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the World War II fighter that did so much close air support work late in that war. The heart of it is the GAU-8/A Avenger, a seven-barrel 30mm rotary cannon, and around the pilot sits roughly 1,200 pounds of titanium armor known as the bathtub. In Operation Desert Storm, 132 A-10s deployed and flew about 8,100 sorties. The Warthog went on to fly in Operation Allied Force over Kosovo in 1999, through Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and in 2014 the 122nd Fighter Wing took 12 of them to strike ISIL targets under Operation Inherent Resolve.

The patch shows the jet from above in gray thread with black outlining, straight wing stretched nearly edge to edge, pylons under the wing, the long nose and canopy pointed up. Behind it an American flag ripples out to the right from a blue field of white stars and red and white stripes. The engine pods and the twin tails sit at the bottom of the design, right where a crew chief would look for them. It measures 4 inches wide by 3.5 inches tall, with a cut edge that follows the outline of the wing and the flag instead of a box border. The back is iron-on.

Ask anyone who called for close air support what they wanted overhead, and a lot of them will name this airplane. The A-10 community built its reputation on staying on station, working closely with the troops on the ground and the controllers talking to them, and bringing the gun in close. Pilots, maintainers, weapons loaders and the JTACs who talked them onto targets all have a stake in that record. The Warthog name started as a joke about its looks and turned into a badge of affection. Pairing it with the flag says plainly whose side it was on.

It fits a flight jacket or a riding vest, and it sits well in a shadow box beside wing and squadron patches from an A-10 unit. It is also a good gift for a crew chief, a pilot, or a soldier who remembers the sound of that gun. One patch, the jet and the flag, nothing extra.