German Air Force Patch 61 LTG Lufttransportgeschwader 1f Wing

German Air Force Patch Lufttransportgeschwader LTG 61 Transport Wing Transall C 160 1980s Penzing AB Landsberg am Lech Embroidered on twill merrowed edge 88mm by 61mm three and one half inches by two and seven sixteenth inches.

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History  

Lufttransportgeschwader LTG 61 Air Transport Wing 61 was activated at Erding Air Base on 24 August 1957 as the first operational flying Wing of the German Air Force with its first Staffel Squadron 1 LTG 61 equipped with C 47 Skytrain transport aircraft initially staffed by USAF personnel. The Wings second Staffel Squadron 2 LTG 61 was activated on 4 December 1957 equipped with Noratlas N 2501 transport aircraft. LTG 61 relocated to Neubiberg AB in April 1958 and when 2 Squadron LTG 61 was fully equipped 1 Staffel LTG 61 converted to Noratlas transports. 

The Wing comprised three a Headquarters and Groups Flying Group Technical Group and Aerodrome Group. Flying Group controls the two flying Squadrons of the Wing 611 and 612. Technical Group provided aircraft technical services including maintenance and repair weapons and ammunition survival equipment fuelling fire protection while Aerodrome Group provided non-aeronautical activities and tasks including transportation supplies medical services Aerodrome security and defence runway and airfield repair.  

The Wing adopted a black chamois goat standing on a white mountain peak on a blue shield as its emblem to reflect its location in Bavaria. 

In 1960 LTG 61 deployed to Agadir Morocco to provide earthquake relief the German Air Forces first overseas operation. The Wing reequipped with Transall C 160 transport aircraft in 1970 and relocated to Penzing AB Landsberg am Lech in 1971. The Wing began operating a SAR Medevac flight in 1971 equipped with UH 1D helicopters at the Military Hospital at Ulm with the call sign SAR Ulm 75 providing military and civilian medevac and mountain rescue. 

2 Staffel was inactivated in 1978  but reactivated in 1979 at the same time as a new 3 Staffel equipped with UH 1D Huey helicopters on the redesignation of 1 Staffel Helicopter Transport Wing 64. 3 Staffel relocated to Norvenich AB to undertake SAR and transport duties.  

LTG 61 deployed aircraft overseas for aid flights in response to the famine in Ethiopia and Sudan in 1984 where it developed an extremely low altitude cargo drop procedure. In 1992 the Wing began regular airlift operations to besieged Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia where pilots developed the Sarajevo Approach whereby the aircraft remained high above the city for as long as possible and then diving for the runway at the last moment. As part of budget cuts the German defence Department inactivated HTG 64 and assigned its UH 1D helicopters and personnel to LTG 61 62 and 63. LTG 61 received nineteen UH 1D helicopters from HTG 64 on its disbandment on 1 April 1994 which were assigned to 2 Squadron providing short haul air transport and SAR services. The Wing completed its deployments to Sarajevo when the siege was lifted in 1996.  

The Wing provided rotational deployments to the German Air Transport Base in Termez Uzbekistan from September 2002 providing German ISAF troop staging and air bridge including Medevac to and from Afghanistan and transport support and battlefield Medevac in Afghanistan.  

The Wing inactivated Search and rescue flight at Ulm Military Hospital on 1 April 2003 with the service provided by a civilian BK 117 B2 helicopter call sign Christoph 22. 3 Staffel at Norvenich AB was inactivated in autumn 2006. The ISAF deployment to the German Air Transport Base in Termez relocated to Camp Marmal Mazar e Sharif Air Base Afghanistan on 30 August 2008 with the air bridge to Termez continuing. 

2 Staffel with its UH 1Ds was inactivated on 31 December 2012 on its transfer to the German Army as Task Force SAR UH 1D EinsGrpSAR later redesignated Transport Helicopter Regiment 30 leaving 1 Staffel with its C 160Ds as the Wings only flying Squadron. LTG 61 provided support to French forces during Operation Serval combat mission against Islamists in northern Mali West Africa. The Wing deployed two aircraft for NATO Exercise Trident Juncture in 2015 the largest exercise since the end of the Cold War. The air bridge to Termez continuing until the end of 2015 when the base at Tremez was closed. 

Lufttransportgeschwader 61 is due to transition to A 400M and relocate to Wunstorf AB with its longer upgraded runway.

This patch dates from the 1980s.