Hi guys
Thanks for all the comments. I decided to post these pictures to share my collection with others who would appreciate it just as much as I do. To answer some of the questions:
@ Kremlin: I believe the C-17 patch is American even though I obtained it from South Africa. It's probably from operators of the C-17 Globemaster III and depicts it as the first US cargo aircraft to land on a dirt strip without navigational lights at night using only night vision goggles. When foreign air forces come to visit it's customary for pilots and aircrew to usually swop out squadron patches and gifts in a show of good faith. I also have a USAF F-16 operator's patch that's currently part of another display.
@ Wingman: W407594F is right, It's a pre-Republic SAAF pocket patch with the King's Crown overhead, used before we became indipendent from British rule. These were usually worn during the WWII era and after, and looks the same as the cap and collar badges from the same era.
@ H1017412: No need to be jealous
. There's a guy in your neck of the woods that makes my collections look like a joke! His name is Roan Gouws, maybe you know him? You can view his militaria here on his website:
http://web.mac.com/roanminandi/websites_/Welcome.html . To answer your question about the "Operation Iraqi Freedom" patch: I received this patch from a friend who was a Private Military Contractor in Iraq after the war broke out there. Apparently it was made for them on order from local vendors, and there were variations made with both the 'old' and the 'new' flags, whatever the customer's preference was. These were worn by PMC's from several countries like Australia, the US, Rhodesia, ect. with pride as they did their jobs in the streets of Iraq.
@ Gripen: The display boards aren't mounted yet as there are still several items I still need to find to be satisfied enough with the collection to permanently display them behind glass on the wall. I just store them one placed above the other for easy access when I need to add something new to them. The plan is to eventually cover the surface of the display boards with coloured material before I permanently mount all the badges for display. I'll have to see if I can find some bigger boards or custom make a few for my needs, as I'm running out of space to display what I have on the current ones.
The patches are just resting on the horizontal boards while all the bagdes and wings with pins are just stuck in deep enough to keep them in place temporarily. To give you an idea, this week alone I received some more patches from SA including a 40 Squadron "Machtag" patch from my friend Stephan Botha, a 16 Squadron "Lunar Ops" patch, a 4 Squadron Impala ground crew patch, an Impala "Recce Mech" ground crew patch, another 2 Squadron Cheetah "Tac Recce" patch and a new South African flag shoulder patch. I also won several more patches on auction this week, so I have to warn anyone that reads this thread:
"Collecting Militaria in any form or shape IS A TERRIBLE ADDICTION!" On that note Heather: Are you perhaps interested in swapping one of your "Excercise Good Hope" patches for a SAAF "1 Squadron" patch that operated Mirage F1's before they were disbanded?
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