Unidentified patches

USAF Patches - Strategic Air Command, bombers, fighters, air divisions and more

Mystery Patches

Mysteries 1

Solved 1

Solved 2

No longer Mystery Patches, page 1

	Starship Hippodrome - HAVE One of the most difficult patches to identify. I suspected it was a U-2 base. Vernon Spencer solved the mystery. "I was a "Crewmember" at Starship Hippodrome throughout 1975. I can't go into detail, but I can verify that TUSLOG DET 4 (Sinop, Turkey) did not have any U-2 flights on my watch. To my knowledge, it was not a SAC base at that time. There were no aircraft there at all except for a very small single, MedEvac prop job operated by Army personnel. TUSLOG Det 4 (Sinop) was a small listening base on the Black Sea Coast. The base was locally known an NATO "Logistics" base, but was mainly populated with Army Security Agency personnel. There were Air Force and Navy personnel on base, but were definitely in the minority. I don't think there were more than 200 military personnel there at any one time. Hippodrome was the remote operations area on a peninsula jutting into the Black Sea. It was staffed with Army personnel exclusively. There was another "Ops" building, that held the other services. The Hippodrome facility may have gotten it's patch from the "Hi-Tech" look of the antenna arrays, Geodesic Domes, and parabolic dishes visible just outside the operations facility. There was a 50' Movable Parabolic Dish there inside a dome. there was 30' dish w/o a dome. Srangely enough, periodically the Soviets almost always had a trawler just offshore and it was not uncommon to have a flyover of Soviet aircraft to see if we were up to any mischief. was only there for the one tour of duty (13 months), but there is a wealth of anecdotes from others, Try a search on "sinop tuslog det 4 army security agency" to find some of these. Here is a link that has a picture of Hippodrome in the far distance, It also has the patch. http://www.tuslogdet4.com/sinop/stancel/stancel.htm Here is a rather poor pic of Hippodrome from a bad angle. http://www.tuslogdet4.com/sinop/polgar/polgar04.jpg I hope this hasn't shattered any hopes for you for a big mysterious base with double-super-secret aircraft. If you look at where Sinop, Turkey is located relative to the old Soviet Union, you can see it's strategic value for the Intelligence Community. There were much larger sister bases in Turkey. Incirlic, Adana and Karamursel would have had more of a chance of having the SAC presence you thought Sinop might have."
	B-52 MIG Killers - HAVE Obviously used during Viet Nam, but by who? Les Robbins wrote, "Can't give you the specifics (sorry 'bout that) but I can provide some general information about two of the patches. The MiG Killer B-52D had to do with the D model B-52 gunners shooting down attacking MiGs during the Linebacker campaign to Hanoi and other parts of North VietNam (the bombing that finally brought NVN to the peace table for good. The D model gunners were still in the tail section of their B-52 and had a good visual on any attacking MiGs as well as on SAMs that were fired at them. The other model B-52 in that campaign (1972) was either the G or H model, and the gunners sat forward with the rest of the crew. He had a high resolution TV system to see who or what was attacking. Essentially he did not have nearly as good a view of incoming missiles or enemy aircraft. (Most of the 15 B-52s that were shot down were not the D models, because the rear direct looking gunner had excellent visuals. The gunners shot down some of the MiGs, so that is probably the source of the patch.
	SAC Combat Defense Force - HAVE Don't know anything about this unit. Patch states "SAC" at top. Dog suggests K9 operations. Plane may represent airborne command post and stars could symbolize communications. Ponder's guide to mottos says its the USAF Ground Electronic Engineering Installation Agency, but yet there is that "SAC" at the top of the patch. Jordan Murphy wrote From talking to various "ole timers" my understanding is that the Combat Defense Force is what became Security Police (not law enforcement) and what is now Security Forces. Until the reorganization of SFs in 1997, LE and SPs were different AFSCs; SPs took care of security (flight line, missile field), LEs were the on base cops. It is now one AFSC and enlisted personnel will switch back and forth between law enforcement and security duties as their supervisor sees fit. Terry Horstead (the SAC expert) wrote: Patch is for the 320th Combat Support Squadron, Mather AFB, CA.
	Guardians of the North This is the slogan for the 28th Bomb Wing, but this patch Mike Hill, wrote: Under the heading of unknown patches. The one that is labeled GUARDING THE NORTHLAND is the unit patch for the North Dakota Air National Guard or THE HAPPY HOOLIGANS SMSgt Larry Paskert wrote, "The 'Guarding the Northland' patch is for the 119th Fighter Wing (formerly the 119th Fighter Interceptor Group), North Dakota Air National Guard, Fargo. Lee Spain wrote, that it's air forces, Iceland. He attached this scan: