Home » Patches » 117TH TRW Patch – Plastic Backing

117TH TRW Patch – Plastic Backing

$11.99

Enjoy this 117TH TRW Patch that is beautifully embroidered and will be the perfect patch to display or wear!

  • 3″
  • Sew On/Embroidered
  • US Veteran Aviator Owned Business

50 in stock (can be backordered)

SKU: 840231557658 Categories: , , , Tag:

Description

117TH TRW Patch – Plastic Backing

Enjoy this 117TH TRW Patch that is beautifully embroidered and will be the perfect patch to display or wear! This reproduction patch will look great in a shadow box, flight suit or jacket.

  • 3″
  • Sew On/Embroidered
  • US Veteran Aviator Owned Business

Air National Guard service
The 117th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing was re-formed at Birmingham. It continued to fly a mix of jet and propeller aircraft until 1957, when new Republic RF-84F Thunderflash jet reconnaissance aircraft, manufactured by Republic for Air National Guard service. The squadron continued to train in tactical reconnaissance missions throughout the 1950s with the Thunderstreaks.

1961 Berlin Crisis
The wing was federalized on 1 October 1961 as a result of the 1961 Berlin Crisis. The wing included the 160th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron from Dannelly Field, the 106th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Birmingham; the 153d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the Mississippi Air National Guard), and the 184th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of the Arizona Air National Guard. Due to federal budget restrictions, only the 106th deployed to Dreux-Louvilliers Air Base, France. However elements of the three other squadrons rotated to France as operational components of the 7117th Tactical Wing over the next year and 106th pilots returned to the United States.

On 27 October twenty RF-84Fs were deployed to Dreux, arriving on 3 November. In addition, two Lockheed T-33 “T Bird” jet trainers and one Douglas C-47 Skytrain were deployed as support aircraft. By 22 November, elements of the wing reassembled at the newly reactivated Dreux for an estimated stay of ten months. However, problems developed immediately after their arrival at Dreux. The base had been in standby status for about a year and no longer was used for operational flights.

In any event, the more than one thousand airmen of the wing arrived at a base that had been stripped clean. The French had taken away office desks, telephones and typewriters. The kitchens had not been used for some time, a fact that the quartermasters had not taken into account, so getting the base operational again in the short time available took an all-out effort. A few days after the ground units arrived from Alabama, the first aircraft were prepared for a practice flight. The French Air Traffic Controllers, however, refused permission for take-off. Only after a lot of negotiation were several aircraft allowed to take to the air.

Dreux Air Base came within the Paris Air Traffic Control Area, as did the busy Le Bourget and Orly Airports, and an extra squadron of jet aircraft had not been accounted for in the French air traffic controllers’ staffing levels. The safety of civilian air traffic was used to justify denying the Americans permission to fly out of Dreux. Notwithstanding stormy protests by the United States, the RF-84s stayed on the ground. The pilots who had only just completed a risky Atlantic crossing of several thousand kilometers, had to wait in the operations room. In the United States, the Birmingham News daily newspaper reported that ‘their boys’, after the sudden mobilization and the weeks of preparation, had not been sent to Europe to sit around a French airfield doing nothing.

However, as strongly the Pentagon protested, the French answer remained “non!”. Eventually General Reid Doster, commander of the Alabama deployment could do little else but take his aircraft elsewhere. At the end of November 1961 he received permission from the French traffic controllers to go with his aircraft to Chaumont-Semoutiers Air Base, another USAFE in France. Permission was received from the French to move on 8 December 1961, however HQ USAFE insisted that the 7117th Wing headquarters remain at Dreux for airlift traffic. Thus the 106th operated from Chaumont AB, its headquarters remained at Dreux. On 22 July 1962 the 106th returned to Alabama leaving its F-84Fs in France. Dreux was placed back in standby status.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “117TH TRW Patch – Plastic Backing”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *