9" USN Patch Chinnampo Fleet Activities Group 3850

[wildwill]

I picked this up today.

[Patchcollector]

Nice big patch

[firefighter]

Great looking patch. Cool dragon

[Salvage Sailor]

That's an odd patch which begs for some research to identify unit '3850'. The USN Fleet Activities Group (Korea) was and is in Chinhae, South Korea and I've been there several times. It is a regular stop for the USN Salvage and Service force in WESTPAC from 1947 to present. Chinnampo is on the west coast in North Korea and was only briefly occupied from October 1950 to early December 1950. It was evacuated between December 4th to 6th, 1950 along with Hungnam on the east coast of North Korea. The shipping channel to the port was mined and closed to traffic throughout much of this 10 week period and also under fire from North Korean batteries.

 

Naval History and Heritage Command - The Hungnam and Chinnampo Evacuations

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/h/the-hungnam-and-chinnampo-evacuations.html

 

First hand account of Mine clearance of Chinnampo in October-November 1950

http://minemen.org/KoreanMem.htm

 

 

[Bearmon]

North 38 degrees 50 minutes?

[firefighter]

North 38 degrees 50 minutes?

 

You may be on to something. This is what I found on Chinnampo's location, Latitude in degrees, minutes, and seconds (see definition): 38° 43' 17" N

[Salvage Sailor]

Nice guess but 3850 is a designator. For example, Fleet Activity 3912 is Sasebo, Japan; 3242 was Wonson, Korea; 3923 is Yokosuka, Japan: 3916 is Wolmi-Do;.........

3850 is most likely the designator for Fleet Activity Chinnampo but it would have been very short lived considering the timeframe. The patch may have been made in Occupied Japan in preparation to moving to Chinnampo, or perhaps just after they bugged out.

The answer lies in the dusty archives of the Navy Department circa 1950

[wildwill]

Do you think its rare?

[Salvage Sailor]

It very well could be if the designator is verified to be circa 1950