German Army Aviation Patch b 25 Regiment Heeresflieger CH 53

German Army Aviation Patch Heeresflieger Transport Regiment 25 CH 53 Helicopter late 1970s Embroidered on twill cut edge 101mm four inches diameter.

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History 

Mittlere Heeresflieger Transporthubschrauber Regiment 15 Medium Army Aviation Transport Helicopter Regiment 15 was activated on 1 April 1971 at Rheine AB with H 34 helicopters and personnel of Army Aviation Battalion 100 and Army Aviation Maintenance Squadron 107 to carry out air transport combat support for Army and Special Forces units in support of NATO operations and operationally testing the new Regimental and central maintenance structures. The Regiment was named Baren Stark Strong Bear and adopted a bear for its emblem.  

The Regiment comprised a Headquarters and three Branches namely Flying Branch Technical Branch and Supply Branch. Flying Branch 151 controlled the flight operations squadron and three helicopter squadrons each of which were divided into four flights. Technical Branch 152 provided helicopter technical services via four Squadrons with Staff Staffel Sqn responsible for management Test Flight and inspection two Maintenance Staffeln Sqns and one Repair Staffel Sqn responsible for maintenance repair weapons ammunition survival equipment fuelling while Supply Branch 155 supplied the Regiment with fuel ammunition and staff support with non aeronautical activities and tasks including catering transportation medical services security and defence and airfield repair and provided the Technical Operational Command TEF for the Regiment. The Regiment also included Army Aviation Squadron 159 which provided liaison support and basic flying training. 

The Regiment undertook regular military exercises with NATO and with the French Army and prepared pilots and ground personnel for the introduction of the CH 53G helicopter with the first four delivered on 22 June 1974 and the increased capacity demonstrated with airmobile training exercises with Airborne Brigade 27 and light transport helicopter regiment 10. The Regiment deployed 10 CH 53G helicopters to England in June 1975 for joint exercises including artillery transportation.  

Helicopters were deployed for fire fighting in the forests of Lower Saxony in the summer of 1975 and for assistance during flooding in the Elbe estuary and island of Neuwerk rebuilding dykes in early 1976 before tackling wildfires in Lower Saxony in the summer of 1976. The Regiment took part in Exercise Ursa Major in 1976 with three Airmobile operations with airborne troops and returned to England to commence annual joint exercises in 1977. The Regiment provided helicopters to assist with resupply of local populations during severe winter weather in Schleswig Holstein and Lower Saxony in January and February 1979 before taking part in Exercise Hard Fist in September 1979 where both large scale day and night air assault operations and day and night resupply transport operations were carried out with great success. 

The Regiment was redesignated Army Aviation Regiment 15 on 1 October 1979 and activated 153 and 154 Army Aviation Security Squadrons for close defence.  

Helicopters were deployed to transport 380 four metre long steel pipes to provide a water pipeline accross marshland from Itzehoe to Brunsbuttel in April 1982 and transported a peat collecting machine as an underslung load from the marsh fens at West Moor in Saterland to the Moormuseum at Elisabethfehn. Fire fighting operations continued including during 1990 a large heath wildfire between Gronau and Ahaus and in Greece where their fire fighting saved ancient treasures on a hillside at Athos. 

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991 the Regiment deployed helicopters to transfer wounded personel arriving on medecac transport aircraft at Frankfurt and Ramstien to the main US hospital in southern Germany. At the end of Opertation Desert Storm the Regiment deployed helicopters to operate in Northern Iraq transporting relief supplies to the Kurdish refugees in 1991 and in 1992 deployed elements to Bagdad Iraq in support of UNSCOM operations to eliminate Iraqs WMD NBC Nuclear Biological and Chemical Weapons and facilities and ensure Iraqs compliance with UN requirements. 

Army Aviation Regiment 15 was given the honorary name Munsterland in 1994 during a restructuring of the German Armed Forces. The Regiment transported fifty aircraft as underslung loads from the Air Force Museum Appen Hamburg to Berlin in 1994 and Flying Branch 151 and Technical Branch 152 received a Liaison Squadron equipped with BO 105 helicopters. Army Aviation Regiment 15 provided rotational detachments to Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina in the former Yugoslavia in support of IFOR in December 1995. The Regiments UNSCOM rotational deployment to Bagdad Iraq ended and its Mostar detachment was reassigned to SFOR in 1996 and it provided disaster relief in response to the flooding of the river Oder in 1997. The Regiment provided a detachment to evacuate German nationals from the Embassy in Tirana Albania on 14 March 1997 following large scale disturbances and sent 2 Squadron of Flying Branch 151 to Macedonia as part of KFOR on 18 March 1999 before relocating to Toplicane Kosovo.  

Army Aviation Regiment 15 was reassigned to Division Luftbewegliche Operationen Airmobile Operations Division and began deploying assets to Kabul Afghanistan in support of ISAF operations in April 2002 with machine guns incorporated into the helicopters for self defence. Disaster relief operations were undertaken in response to major flooding of the river Elbe and SFOR participation ended in 2002. Fire Fighting missions were undertaken in response to wildfires in Germany during the hot summer of 2003.  

The Regiment was redesignated Medium Transport Helicopter Regiment 15 on 1 October 2003. Commitment to KFOR ceased in November 2003 and the Kabul Afghanistan ISAF detachment relocated to Termez Uzbekistan in 2004. The Regiments ISAF Helicopter Detachment in Termez relocated to Mazar i Sharif Afghanistan in November 2007 and 12.7mm heavy machine guns were incorporated onto the rear loading door. 

With the Federal Ministry of Defence decision to reduce and reorganize the Armed Forces in October 2011 included the transfer of all CH 53G helicopters to the German Air Force Medium Transport Helicopter Regiment 15 was disbanded at Rheine AB on 31 December 2012.  

This patch dates from late 1970s.