Bob Hudson Posted May 17, 2018 Share #1 Posted May 17, 2018 Someone in town called wanting help ID'ing some patches from their late father's WWII AAF service in the Pacific with the 421st AAFBU.SIDE NOTE: they said his records were destroyed in the fire so they had no idea other than that he'd been a Capt. doing support work for the AAF. Digging into ancestry.com I quickly found a state record of service with unit & service details including locations all through the war and - a surprise to the family - a record of his being wounded in the Phillipines and getting a PH. . They have some basic 5TH AF and a pinwheel Air Corps patch, as well as this one, which I presume was from one of the squadrons he island hopped with in the Pacific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Finn Posted May 17, 2018 Share #2 Posted May 17, 2018 Neat patch! Hope someone can I.D. it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hudson Posted May 17, 2018 Author Share #3 Posted May 17, 2018 Here's a listing of his travels through the Pacific. This patch would have been for a unit that used pretty much the same path. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hudson Posted May 17, 2018 Author Share #4 Posted May 17, 2018 Take away the ducks and the patch would look like a blue 8 ball. The 8th Fighter Squadron apparently was called the eight balls, according to this wikipedia entry, and they traveled the same path as this AAF Captain and the 421st Base Unit. "Unhappy with being last on the supply line and not liking the unlucky "Eightballs" name caused the pilots to begin calling the 8th “The Black Sheep" Squadron. The name stuck and a Disney artist designed the distinctive logo." Now this is what they say was the 8th FS patch. This is not a Disney design, is it? The Donald Duck lookalikes on the 8 ball look very much Disney. This sheep is kind of lame. The yellow color is similar to the yellow behind the ducks (which looks like the number 8). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5thwingmarty Posted May 17, 2018 Share #5 Posted May 17, 2018 I'm curious as to the background being blue if it was supposed to be an 8-ball. The tail also looks more like that of a P-61 rather than a P-38, which had 2 or 3 man crews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hudson Posted May 18, 2018 Author Share #6 Posted May 18, 2018 btt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamski Posted May 19, 2018 Share #7 Posted May 19, 2018 Well, we know he was with the 35th Fighter Group. It consisted of the 39th, 40th and 41st Fighter Squadrons. Only the 39th and 41st had P-38's. I am not sure this patch isn't a stateside training unit patch as those units already had well established insignia (the cobra for the 39th and the buzzsaw for the 41st). The number looks to be more of a 6 than an 8. Beautiful patch nonetheless! -Ski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Signor Posted May 25, 2018 Share #8 Posted May 25, 2018 WW-2 era 8th Fighter Squadron(Early) emblem ............and a later 8th Black Sheep also WW2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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