RCAF Patch Flight Royal Canadian Air Force Crest 103 Rescue Unit

RCAF Patch Royal Canadian Air Force 103 Rescue Unit Crest Patch Early 1960s S 51 Dragonfly SAR Lancaster RCAF Station Summerside Embroidered on twill cut edge 133mm by 95mm five and one quarter inches by three and three quarter inches.

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103 Search and Rescue Flight was activated on 1 April 1947 at RCAF Station Shearwater replacing 101 Composite Flight and operated two PBY Cansos flying boats and a Norseman with a Sikorsky S-51 Dragonfly received on 11 October 1947. In late 1947 103 SAR Flight relocated to RCAF Station Greenwood with a detachment in Torbay and added modified Lancaster SAR aircraft to its fleet. In 1950 the Squadron was redesignated 103 Rescue Unit and moved to RCAF Station Summerside. In 1954 the 103 RU detachment at Torbay was renamed 107 Rescue Unit. On the unification
of the Canadian Forces in 1968 103 Rescue Unit inactivated with assets forming part of the newly activated 413 Transport and Rescue Squadron at CFB Summerside.

103 Search and Rescue Flight was reactivated in in May 1977 at CFB Gander Canada under 9 Wing on the renaming of 424 Squadrons detachment of CH 113 Labrador twin rotor helicopters which had been moved to CFB Gander at the beginning of 1977 to provide search and rescue SAR cover for the western North Atlantic following Canadas declaration of its 200 nautical mile offshore Exclusive Economic Zone and its resultant increased Canadian fishing activity.

In 1997 103 Search And Rescue Flight was redesignated 103 Search and Rescue Squadron and reequipped with CH-149 Cormorant helicopters in 2002 on the retirement of the CH 113 Labrador fleet.

This patch dates from the early 1960s.