A Vietnam war era 56th FMS Crash Recovery patch

[Patchcollector]

Greetings all,
I was looking through some old photos I took of some patches from my collection awhile back and found this one.It is for the 56th FMS A/R Shop Crash Recovery Team that was based at Nakhon Phanom AB,located in Thailand on the border with Laos.One of the more difficult maintenance pieces to find.I'm not sure where this one was made,if anyone can tell,please let me know.Thanks!

These guys did a lot of work for the Air Commandos during the Vietnam war.

[Patchcollector]

Back view

[Patchcollector]

Here's a photo of the units' sign on base in Thailand

[Patchcollector]

Here's a pic of "Big Mo",the crane shown on the sign above.It was used to lift and carry the crashed Aircraft.

[firefighter]

Cool patch. I assume 'AR' is for aircraft recovery?

[Patchcollector]

Cool patch. I assume 'AR' is for aircraft recovery?

 

 

Yes I believe so

[Teamski]

Pretty cool patch! AR also means Aero Repair. They are the heavy duty structural repair folks.

 

-Ski

[firefighter]

Pretty cool patch! AR also means Aero Repair. They are the heavy duty structural repair folks.

 

-Ski

 

Thats cool.

[Teamski]

 

Thats cool.

 

 

Yeah, it is definitely Aero Repair.....

 

-Ski

[Randy]

Aero Repair would be correct. Sometime in the 70s it became Repair and Reclamation, usually a section of the maintenance flight in the Equipment Maintenance Sq. in fighter units. Heavies might be different. Crash/aircraft recovery was just one function. I was in the 36th EMS R&R shop in the mid 80s, and we did all the heavy maintenance like flight controls, landing gear, canopies, and all associated rigging to name a few. Only (thankfully) had to deal with a couple of actual crashes. Most of our responses were for barrier engagements or declared in-flight emergencies. One of the most demanding jobs I was ever in due to the number of diverse areas we worked with. I think now they are back to being Aero Repair again though.

 

Randy

[Patchcollector]

Thanks for all the comments and info guys.Since posting the 56th patch I've acquired a few other Crash Recovery pieces.When I have a chance I'll get them out and post them.

[Randy]

Here's one we had for the F-15. This one was done at the Tiger shop on Okinawa.

 

Randy

[firefighter]

Here's one we had for the F-15. This one was done at the Tiger shop on Okinawa.

 

Randy

 

Nice one.I remember seeing those F-15s from Kadena, I think their tail code was 'ZZ'. I have a picture somewhere of one I took at Clark.