WW II-US Army Air Force TB

I maintain records on my trackables. For a US-based trackable, this one is unusual for its longevity and movement. In the six-year period, 2010-19, the owner released a total of 3,793 trackables in the United States (96%) and Europe (4%). This trackable is one of the 5% of the total that circulated for at least 5 years and had been moved at least 25 times. That is a target rate of at least five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days. The average drop rate of my trackables in the US is 124 days, in Europe it is 71 days. As of 16-Apr-24 this trackable had survived for 13.0 years and had been moved by 80 cachers, for an average drop every 59 days, or 6.2 drops per year. Please keep it moving, then drop it in a safe place!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it at an event, in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban, non-premium cache. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean and dry, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

Replica Shoulder Patch. This patch was purchased at the Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, TX.  The museum preserves and promotes the history of the World War II military glider program.  The gift shop sell replica shoulder patches of military units supervising or glider in their missions.  The museum is located on the site of the World War II South Plains Army Air Field, where about 80% of the glider pilots were trained between 1942 and 1945.  Among many exhibits, the museum houses a faithfully restored example of the nearly the nearly 15,000 WACO CG-4A gliders built during the war effort.
 
The United States Army Air Forces were the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II.  It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the Services of Supply (which in 1943 became the Army Service Forces), and the AAF.  Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
 
The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943.  By VE Day it had 1.25 million men stationed overseas and operated from more than 1,600 airfields worldwide.
 
The Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in June 1941 to provide the air arm a greater autonomy in which to expand more efficiently, and to provide a structure for the additional command echelons required by a vastly increased force.  Although other nations already had separate air forces independent of the army or navy (such as the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe), the USAAF remained a part of the United States Army until the United States Air Force came into being in September 1947.