1116 USAF 4510TH AIR MAINTENANCE & SUPPLY GROUP FLAG.

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This item SOLD at 2023 Dec 03 @ 11:13UTC-5 : EST/CDT
Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 100.00 USD
Estimated at 200.00 - 300.00 USD
3' x 4' regulation double applique embroidered Air Force insignia above the central device which holds the unit crest of the 4510th. Philadelphia quartermaster label dated August 4, 1959. This unit was officially the 4510th Maintenance and Supply Group and they were posted to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. They were the support unit for the 4510th Combat Crew Training Wing. Luke AFB is named for World War One American fighter pilot 2nd LT. Frank Luke, an Arizona native. Luke earned the nickname of “the Balloon Buster,” for shooting down 14 German observation balloons along with 4 German aircraft. Luke was killed in action after shooting down three balloons and being shot down himself. Surviving the crash of his SPAD fighter, Luke took on some German soldiers coming to capture him, killing a few with pistols before he too was killed. Luke AFB began in 1940 when the U.S. Army Air Corps sought a new base for the training of fighter pilots. Located near Phoenix, the base soon grew to be the single most important fighter training base in the nation with some 12,000 pilots graduating from the school. Students flew some of the most legendary aircraft of the inventory here from the AT-6 Texan trainer to the P-40 Tomahawk and later the P-51 Mustang and the P-47 Thunderbolt. With the wind down after World War Two, Luke AFB was deactivated in November 1946. With the start of the Korean War in 1950, the new U.S. Air Force (as of 1947) found itself very short of trained fighter pilots and Luke AFB was reactivated in February 1951 as Luke Air Force Base. By this time the planes flown here were the new jet fighters including the F-84 C Thunderjets and the improved model F-84F Thunderstreak. The first fighter group posted to Luke was the 127th Fighter Group, Michigan National Guard. Now federalized, the command was redesignated as the 127th Pilot Training Wing and moved from Michigan to Luke in March 1951. They were then replaced in November 1952 by the 3600th Flying Training Wing (Fighter) which had four training squadrons under command. In May 1953, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds flight demonstration squadron was formed and would remain at Luke AFB until moved to Nellis AFB in Nevada in 1956. At the end of 1957, the Air Force reorganized its training and tactical fighter wings based on aircraft and mission type and Luke's transfer to the Tactical Air Command. With that, the 3600th FTW was redesignated as the 4510th Combat Crew Training Wing flying the F-100 Super Sabre fighter. Subordinate to the new command were six fighter training squadrons. In 1969 with the arrival of the F-4 Phantom II fighters, the unit designation as changed to the 58th tactical Fighter Wing in October 1969. Luke AFB continues to train fighter pilots for the Air Force on the most current aircraft in the inventory. With the designation change of the 4510th Combat Crew Training Wing, all of the subordinate units either disbanded or also had their designations changed. Thus, the 4510th Maintenance and Supply Group only existed in that designation while the wing bore its designation. Its mission was supplying everything needed for the fighters and pilots under its auspices as well as the maintaining of it aircraft with mechanics for the jet engines and airframes plus avionics. Condition: very good overall. (02-19982-14/JS). $200-300.