USAAF US Army Air Force Patch United States 2 AAF Air Defence 1941

US Army Air Force Patch United States 2 AAF 1941 Air Defence US North West Coast Combat Training Fully Embroidered cut edge 79mm by 67mm three and one eighth inches by two and five eighth inches.

Free Shipping

2 United States Army Air Force USAAF was activated on 9 April 1941 at McChord Field on the renaming of Northwest Air District of the GHQ Air Force which had been activated on 19 October 1940. 2 AAF provided air defense of the North West United States and Upper Midwest regions including antisubmarine patrols along coastal areas until October 1942 with 5 7 17 39 and 42 Bombardment Groups. In late January 1942 elements of the B 25 Mitchell equipped 17 Bombardment Group at Pendleton Field Oregon were reassigned to Columbia Army Air Base South Carolina ostensibly to fly antisubmarine patrols off the southeast coast of the United States but in actuality came to prepare for the Doolittle Raid against Japan. At the same time January 1942 2 AAFs primary mission became the organization and training of combat units crews and the replacement training of individuals for bombardment fighter and reconnaissance operations prior to their deployment to the overseas combat air forces.

4 United States Army Air Force received graduates of Army Air Forces Training Command flight schools; navigator training; flexible gunnery schools and various technical schools, organized them into newly activated combat groups and squadrons, and provided operational unit training OTU and replacement unit training RTU to prepare groups and replacements for deployment overseas to combat theatres. The Second Air Force became predominantly a B 17 Flying Fortress and B 24 Liberator bomber OTU and RTU organization heavy bomb groups raised after Pearl Harbor were organized and trained by Second Air Force OTU units, then were deployed to combat commands around the world. After most of the heavy bombardment groups had completed OTU training the Second Air Force conducted replacement training of heavy bombardment combat crews. In mid 1943 2 AAFs training of B 17 and B 24 replacement crews began to be phased out and reassigned to First Third and Fourth Air Forces as 2 AAF began training and replacement training of B 29 Superfortress Very Heavy bomb groups destined for Twentieth Air Force.

On 13 December 1944 First Second Third and Fourth Air Force were all placed under the unified command of the Continental Air Forces CAF. The training of B 29 groups and replacement personnel continued until August 1945. With the end of the Pacific War Second Air Force was inactivated on 30 March 1946. In what was effectively a redesignation the headquarters staff and resources were used to create Fifteenth Air Force which became the first Numbered Air Force of the new Strategic Air Command.

This patch dates from 1941.