Any info about USAF 3949th Air Base Sqdn patch?

[Siamundo]

Hello all. I have had this patch for several years but have never been able to find out anything about the 3949th Air Base Squadron. The designappears to have a roll of film and possibly a U-2. Patch itself is a nice old one with separately attached tabs. Thanks for any information

[Teamski]

Cool patch!! Too bad, but I'm stumped. Maybe Terry can help you out. It definately is not from Thule, Keflavik, Eilson, Elmendorf or Shemya.....

 

-Ski

[TLHorstead]

Cool patch!! Too bad, but I'm stumped. Maybe Terry can help you out. It definately is not from Thule, Keflavik, Eilson, Elmendorf or Shemya.....

 

-Ski

 

Sone one said "I Can Help" This is the best I can do

Activated & Organized 01 Apr 1960 at RCAF Churchill as a KC-97 Reflex unit assigned to 22nd Air Division at

Clinton County AFB, Ohio, Reassigned to 818th Air Division at Lincoln AFB, Nebraska 01 Jul 1960, Reassigned to

825th Air Division at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas 20 May 1961, 17th Reassigned to 818th Air Division at Whiteman

AFB, Missouri on 15 Aug1962, Sorry I do not have a date of Inactivation

 

This info was obtained from the Special / General Order Files in the SAC Historians Office at Offutt Thank you to

Robert J. Boyd Chief Historian HQ, SAC Offutt AFB (early 1980's)

 

 

Terry L Horstead

TSgt USAF Retired

[Siamundo]

Thank you Terry and Ski. This is certainly more than I knew before. Just based on designs on the patch, I am guesing this unit had something to do with surveillance or reconnaissance?

[TLHorstead]

CORRECTION (underlined)

 

Some one said "I Can Help" This is the best I can do

Activated & Organized 01 Apr 1960 at RCAF Churchill as a KC-97 Reflex unit assigned to 22nd Air Division at

Clinton County AFB, Ohio, Reassigned to 818th Air Division at Lincoln AFB, Nebraska 01 Jul 1960, Reassigned to

825th Air Division at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas 20 May 1961, Reassigned to 17th th Air Division at Whiteman

AFB, Missouri on 15 Aug1962, Sorry I do not have a date of Inactivation but all B-47 / KC-97 Reflex Support

Units were gone by Jun 1965.

 

This info was obtained from the Special / General Order Files in the SAC Historians Office at Offutt

Thank you to Robert J. Boyd Chief Historian HQ, SAC Offutt AFB (early 1980's)

 

While I was stationed at Offutt I obtained this Info on most of the SAC Units from the Years of SAC Special Orders

This list of SAC Reflex & Air Mail units (Deployed Overseas Alert is about 20 units or so (England, Spain, French

Morroco, & Canada)

 

Terry L Horstead

TSgt USAF Retired

[racarter]

Hi

I don’t know if you still have the patch from the 3949 Air Base Squadron but this is the history of that patch. I was stationed at Forbes AFB in Topeka Kansas and in July of 61 I received orders to report to Fort Churchill Canada. I still have a copy of those orders I never throw anything away.

The Squadron was around 100 permanent party personal, the tour of duty was 1 year no leave. We flew out of Dover AFB on a C54. Fort Churchill was a mixture of many branches of service from the 5^th army to German army troops. It was a melting pot of all branches of services. Army Navy Air force from many different countries.

We were a refueling group KC-97s the planes came in as a detachment and they and their crews stayed for 6 weeks I think then rotated out we had 6 refueling planes parked on the end of the main runway. you can go to Google maps and type in Churchill Canada and then find the runway zoom in to the runway and you will see where there is what looks to be a turnabout at the end of the long runway that is where the underground alert barracks was and where we parked the planes. We were there to refuel the B-52 bombers on their way to Russia, this you must remember was the cold war before ICBM’s.

The patch is somewhat confusing what you think was film was really a depiction of the northern lights as we were above the 58th parallel and the lights were there every night. Don’t know what the plane was supposed to be a KC-97 but they missed it, your right looks like a U-2 spy plane. If you go to discover channel and look up the polar bears of Churchill that is the place. They would lay in front of the barracks doors in really bad white outs and you would come face to face with them. Scare the heck out of you all you had to do is run to your alert truck and they would leave you alone. I have a picture of a bear cub that some friends of mine put in my room one day. Since they are a protected animal a Northwest Mounty the size of a large cage wrestler came by and I had to give it up. The Base commander was Col Godwin and he was the first part of his last name not a fun tour by any means coldest was 52 below zero on Jan 2^nd of 62. Trying to keep recip. Engs running in that condition was hell. I left in the lat summer of 62 had a girl friend while I was up there as there were a lot of civilians on the base as well. Pam American airways had an office on the base really strange place to be for a year.

When they closed it after I left in 62 they dynamited the alert barracks and cleaned everything off the end of the runway. By this time the ICBM were operational and the refulers were not needed. Hope this answers your questions Churchill will always have a soft spot in my heart if ojnly for the good memories of the people that served there.

[Patchcollector]

That is not a roll of film,it is the Northern Lights,or the Aurora Borealis,a common phenomena in the Northern Hemisphere.

[firefighter]

RCAF Churchill, Ontario, Canada (3949th Air Base Squadron)

The Canadian and Overseas bases were set up with a host unit (Examples) Churchill was the 3949th Air Base Squadron, and Namao was the 3955th Air Base Squadrons The units would host a series of Rotational deployments of 60 to 90 days and the units while deployed would stand alert for a launch of the B-47’s and B-52 Alert Force. These tanker units with the KC-97’s were much slower the jet bombers supported aircraft launched on Training and EWO (Emergency War Order) Strike missions if required as well of Bombers being deployed overseas.

[TLHorstead]

This is the official insignia for the 3949th Air Base Squadron and I also have the insignia of the 3955th Air Base Squadron. I had to greatly reduce the size of the image to attach the file to the website The Original File is 5 MB and greatly exceed the 150KB limit to load to this website.The files can be obtained from USAF HRA through the FOIA, however the Federal Funding Sequester has all but eliminated the ability to obtain the files in a timely manner. This morning I received a email from USAF HRA with my last request and the following comment:

Please note that the Agency no longer has the staff to color in emblems that we received in black and white (the colorations had been based on the descriptions included).

 

Terry L Horstead

 

 

[Bearmon]

 

 

looks a lot like a THULE Greenland AFB patch wit the "radar" and

with the rockers added above and below

 

 

 

 

[radmanpatches]

I just wanted to add my Fort Churchill patch to this thread.

 

Mark