United States. A Theater-Made Fourteenth Air Force "Flying Tigers" Usaaf Jacket Patch, C.1943

Fabricated from gold-colored bullion wire, in a zipper-like pattern, with red, white and black embroidery, on a royal blue silk base, the base with a royal blue embroidered raised border, illustrating the Flying Tigers insignia of a winged tiger surmounted by the USAAF star, with a light blue cotton mesh backer, measuring 130 mm in diameter, very light soiling evident on the obverse but shows through on the cotton mesh backer, without interruptions in the fabrics, extremely fine.

Footnote: After the China Air Task Force was discontinued, the Fourteenth Air Force (14 AF) was established on March 5, 1943 at Kunming, China, as a United States Army Air Forces combat air force activated in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater during the Second World War, by the special order of President Roosevelt. Claire Chennault of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) (known as the Flying Tigers) was appointed the commander and promoted to Major General. The "Flying Tigers" of 14 AF (who adopted the "Flying Tigers" designation from the AVG) conducted highly effective fighter and bomber operations along a wide front that stretched from the bend of the Yellow River and Tsinan in the north to Indochina in the south, from Chengtu and the Salween River in the west to both East and South China Seas and the island of Formosa in the east. They were also instrumental in supplying Chinese forces through the airlift of cargo across "The Hump" in the China-Burma-India theater. By the end of the Second World War, 14 AF had achieved air superiority over the skies of China and established a ratio of 7.7 enemy planes destroyed for every American plane lost in combat. Overall, military officials estimated that over 4,000 Japanese planes were destroyed or damaged in the China-Burma-India theater during the Second World War. In addition, they estimated that air units in China destroyed 1,100,000 tons of shipping, 1,079 locomotives, 4,836 trucks and 580 bridges. The United States Army Air Forces credits 14 AF with the destruction of 2,315 Japanese aircraft, 356 bridges, 1,225 locomotives and 712 railroad cars. After the war, the Fourteenth Air Force subsequently served Air Defense Command, Continental Air Command, and the Air Force Reserve (AFR). The USAF's Fourteenth Air Force was re-designated as the United States Space Force's Space Operations Command (SPOC) on December 20, 2019.