USAF Patch Fighter USAFE b 31 FW Fighter Wing Aviano F 16 Transient Alert

USAF Patch USAFE 31 FW Fighter Wing Maintenance Squadron Transient Alert F 16 Fighting Falcon Aviano Italy Patch 2000s Fully embroidered merrowed edge 129mm by 203mm five and one sixteenth inches by eight inches.

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Wing History 1991 2015

31 Tactical Fighter Wing based at Homestead AFB Florida was redesignated 31 Fighter Wing on 1 October 1991. Hurricane Andrew swept across southern Florida on 24 August 1992 leaving Homestead AFB extensively damaged although the aircraft were evacuated before the storm. The base was recommended for closure but was transferred to the Air Force Reserve. 31 Fighter Wing was inactivated at Homestead AFB on 1 April 1994 and to retain the Wings lineage reactivated the same day at Aviano Air Base Italy in place of the 401 Fighter Wing and was assigned f 16 equipped 510 and 555 Fighter Squadrons. The Wing continued involvement with the former Yugoslavia with Operation Deny Flight in May 1994 and the 1995 SAR operation to successful extraction of 555 FS pilot Captain Scott O’Grady after six days evasion. The Wing undertook Operation Deliberate Force in August and September 1995 conducting air strikes against Bosnian Serbs.

USAFE renamed the Wing 31 AEW Air Expeditionary Wing at Aviano AB from 24 March to 10 June 1999 for Operation Allied Force the NATO operation to stop Serbian atrocities in Kosovo. With its Squadrons carrying out more than 2400 sorties 10000 combat hours. The Wings 510 and 555 Fighter Squadrons conducted deployments to Ahmed Al Jaber AB Kuwait in support of Operation Southern Watch and deployed combat search and rescue three times while enforcing the no fly zone over Iraq between June and December 2001

From August to December 2002 the Wings 510 Fighter Squadron and 603 Air Control Squadron deployed to Southwest Asia in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The Wing served as the launch point for the largest airborne operation since 1989 opening a second front in northern Iraq under Operation Iraqi Freedom 2003 and with the Wings 603 Air Control Squadron deploying to Iraq. 31 Fighter Wing continued deploying forces in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Force to 2007.

The Wing played a major role in Operation Odyssey Dawn in March 2011 enforcing the no fly zone over and Operation Unified Protector with air strikes until 31 October 2011.

This patch dates from the 2000s.