"1850th Airborne Comm Sqd"

1850th AIRBORNE COMMUNICATIONS SQUADRON (ACSQ)
This patch was formerly worn by communications personal (enlisted and officers alike) who flew onboard the NEACP and ABNCP aircraft. For the first two decades of operations, communications personal belonged to the AF Communications Service (later "Command") and where assigned to the 1st Aerospace Communications Wing (later "Group") and attached to the 1st ACCS and 2nd ACCS for duty. When SAC was disbanded in 1992, the 1850th was disbanded and personnel divided between the 1st and 2nd ACCS a Offutt AFB. This patch was created around 1988 and unfortunately no official description could be located. The patch shows an EC-135 and E-4B, a ground station antenna, a communications satellite all connected by red communication flashes. The green earth supports an air traffic control tower and HF antenna array. The "Big Dipper" and Polaris appear overhead. Wear of this patch was discontinued when the unit personnel was assigned to the squadrons to which they were formerly attached to. The patch was received by Andreas Hunold (MSgt, GEAF, ret.) from former 55th SRW member SrA Thomas Chevallier. Information covering the background of the 1 ACCS Nightwatch has been taken from Major (USAF ret) Greg Ogletree's ASMIC Trading Post article Spring 1994, pages 43-49.

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."