Patchcollector Posted April 22, 2014 Share #1 Posted April 22, 2014 Hi everyone, This just arrived today.A Desert Shield/Desert Storm Southern Air Transport piece.I don't have any SAT stuff and thought this was pretty cool so I picked it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchcollector Posted April 22, 2014 Author Share #2 Posted April 22, 2014 Back view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunbunnyB/3/75FA Posted April 22, 2014 Share #3 Posted April 22, 2014 too be quite honest, ive never saw this patch before, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark1 Posted April 23, 2014 Share #4 Posted April 23, 2014 This patch belongs to a government Contractor "Southern Air Transport". They helped airlift operations during Operations Desert Shield / Desert Storm. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted April 23, 2014 Share #5 Posted April 23, 2014 "Government contractor" is a bit of an understatement. At one time it was owned by the CIA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Air_Transport "During the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations, SAT's accomplishments became legendary. Both the company and the participating crewmembers received performance awards as members of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet from a grateful U.S. Air Force." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamski Posted April 23, 2014 Share #6 Posted April 23, 2014 (Another Story) Reminds me of an incident at Travis years ago when I was riding with the Pro Super (Flight Line Production Supervisor) on one of the taxiways. This Southern Air L-100 (C-130) was taxiing across the front of us then all of a sudden turned towards us last minute without stopping. It scared the hell out of us as the MSgt I was riding with rapidly put the truck in reverse and backed right onto the grass! We couldn't believe it as the plane just wizzed right past us without even a tap on the brakes. We found out later that the "pilot" was actually another Pro Super from midshift who also worked for Southern Air as a second job. When I ran into him the next morning, he asked about losing a game of chicken with a L-100 with a chuckle. I didn't think it was funny at all. The vision of propeller blades cutting into the cab of the truck was not exactly hilarious. -Ski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashesandovals Posted April 23, 2014 Share #7 Posted April 23, 2014 "Government contractor" is a bit of an understatement. At one time it was owned by the CIA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Air_Transport "During the Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations, SAT's accomplishments became legendary. Both the company and the participating crewmembers received performance awards as members of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet from a grateful U.S. Air Force." Very interesting - never heard about that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchcollector Posted April 23, 2014 Author Share #8 Posted April 23, 2014 Actually,both Mark and GWB are correct.They are "Government contracted" and also did have ties to the CIA,at one time actually being "openly" owned by the CIA.They became famous(or should I say notorious)during the Reagan era when one of their planes was shot down in Central America. Here are the details: On October 5, 1986 Nicaragua shot down a SAT C-123K, Corporate Air Services HPF821, formerly USAF 54-679 (c/n 20128), cargo plane with a Soviet-supplied, shoulder-launched heat-seeking missile and captured the cargo handler, a SAT employee Eugene Hasenfus, exposing the Iran-Contra affair. Two other crew were killed. They are now known as Southern Air and I'm not sure if they are still working with the CIA. I have a "SAT" story of my own,not as exciting as Ski's tale though! During the late 80's when I was at Charleston AFB,I saw the SAT planes there.They were more or less a permanent fixture,and kept busy coming and going,probably to Central America,as that was the "hot spot" back then. Here is a photo of the type of A/C I used to see,the same type Ski saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchcollector Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share #9 Posted May 31, 2014 Recently I was able to add to my Southern Air Transport collection so I wanted to post my new finds here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchcollector Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share #10 Posted May 31, 2014 Back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchcollector Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share #11 Posted May 31, 2014 Front Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patchcollector Posted May 31, 2014 Author Share #12 Posted May 31, 2014 Back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nkomo Posted October 27, 2019 Share #13 Posted October 27, 2019 Here is a Southern Air Transport patch from my personal collection. It is sewn directly onto a shirt and has the name Kevin sewn onto the other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milihfra Posted February 16, 2022 Share #14 Posted February 16, 2022 Know this is an older thread and this isn’t a patch but I recently came into ownership of this SAT keychain in the shape of a C-130 or similar variant craft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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