RAAF Patch Sqn Royal Australian Air Force b 12 Squadron Ops 1990s

RAAF Patch 12 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force Chinook Patch 1980s RAAF Amberley Embroidered on twill merrowed edge 90mm three and nine sixteenth inches diameter.

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12 Squadrons aircrew moved From RAAF Amberley to RAAF East Sale in June 1947 to commence conversion training to Lincoln heavy bombers. The Squadron was redesignated 1 Squadron on 22 February 1948.

12 Squadron was reactivated at RAAF Amberley on 3 September 1973 to operate the RAAFs twelve CH 47C Chinook helicopters ordered from the US. The helicopters were shipped on board the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne arriving in March 1974. The Squadrons first Chinook flight took place on 8 July 1974 and was declared operational in December 1974. The Squadrons primary task was to support Australian Army units based in northern Australia and occasionally conducted air sea rescues missions flood relief and a range of other tasks in support of the civil authorities including placing lighthouses in isolated locations air conditioning plants on roofs of tall buildings and supporting police anti narcotics operations. In late August 1980 one of 12 Squadrons Chinooks flew from RAAF Amberley to Malaysia to recover a crashed Royal Malaysian Air Force S 61 Nuri helicopter the longest helicopter deployment undertaken by the RAAF to that time.

With the need to reduce defence expenditure in 1989 the Australian government decided to retire the Chinook helicopters and following the standing down of the Chinooks on 30 June 1989 12 Squadron was disbanded on 25 August 1989.

This patch dates from the 1980s.