USAF Patch Intel USAFE d 7405 Operations Squadron Covert Intelligence C 130E

USAF Patch Intel USAFE 7405 Operations Squadron Airborne Covert Intelligence Patch Rhein Main AB Berlin Air Corridors 1970s German Made Fully embroidered cut edge 90mm by 77mm three and one half inches by three inches.

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Squadron History

7405 Support Squadron was activated on 10 May 1955 at Wiesbaden AB West Germany with the assets of 7499 Support Squadron which was upgraded to Group status as 7499 Operations Group to which 7405 Supron was assigned. Officially the Squadrons task was to carry out daily courier mission to Tempelhof AB West Berlin carrying passengers and priority cargo exercising the Allied right to free passage in the airspace of the three Berlin Air Corridors and Control Zone but its main mission being covert intelligence gathering along the three flight corridors to Berlin. 

Equipped with specially adapted C 47 C 54 C 118 L 20 RB 26 and EC 97Gs aircraft with covert multiple Elint and Photo Intelligence stations no external indication the Squadron operated three flights A B and C Special Projects supporting the CIA and a detachment Det 1 which operated a specially­ modified Boeing EC 97G Stratofreighter covertly carrying a 240 inch focal length camera was codenamed Pie Face. 7405 Supron carried out missions along the Warsaw Pact borders as well as the Berlin Corridors. Detachment 1 was inactivated on 20 August 1959. The C 47 aircraft were replaced in 1959 by four Convair T 29 navigator trainers converted for courier work and vertical photography

On 30 June 1974 7405 Supron was reassigned directly to HQ USAFE and relocated from Wiesbaden to Rhein Main AB. In 1975 the Squadron received three C 130E Hercules heavily modified for its covert missions and was redesignated 7405 Operations Squadron on 31 December 1975. 7405 Ops Squadron was assigned to 7575 Operations Group on 1 July 1977.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany 7405 Operations Squadron flew its last C 130E Berlin mission on 27 September 1990 prior to the Berlin Air Corridors and Berlin Control Zone being dissolved on 3 October 1990.

7405 Operations Squadron was inactivated on 23 January 1991.

This patch dates from the 1970s.