"38th SRS"
"Electronic Dragons"

38th STRATEGIC RECONNAISSANCE SQUADRON (original design)
The 38th was most recently activated on 1 April 1979 to provide pilots and navigators for the RC-135s (their cockpit crews until then were assigned to the 343rd SRS). Today, they still provide the cockpit crews to the 55th Wing *-135 unique aircraft fleet. According to Major Greg Ogletree the significance reads as follows: The central figure is an upright dragon, breathing fire in defiance of anything that may stand in the way of the accomplishment of the missions. The bolt symbolizes the technological skill surrounding the dragon's mission. The electronics symbol indicates the mission to provide air intelligence of enemy electronic emission. The Latin motto translates into WE LEAD, OTHERS FOLLOW and signifies the fact that the 38th is seeking out the enemy potential so that other may follow a safer path to their objective. There have been different variations of this patch produces throughout the years in different qualities however the basic original 38th design always remained the same. the 38th arrived at Offutt on 16 August 1966 flying EC-135s and KC-135s and was inactivated on 30 March 1970. It then was activated again on 1 April 1979 and on 1 September 1991 it was redesignated from "SRS" to "RS". Patch information courtesy of Major Greg Ogletree (USAF, Ret.), unit chronology was gathered from Mr. Robert S. Hopkins III book on the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker while the illustrated patch comes out of MSgt Andy Hunold's (GEAF, Ret.) personal collection.

About Andreas Hunold: Andy is a retired German AF MSgt, now working at the NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany as a local civilian and his hobby is the U.S. AIR FORCE! "I'm interested in just every USAF unit and I collect everything from fact sheets to base guides, photos and of course cloth patches! At present I have slightly over 10,000 USAF patches in my collection and quite a few from the 55th SRW."