Air Divisions (and equivalent)

This organizational echelon no longer exists, but there are a lot of patches from those that once did. Divisions were intermediate headquarters between numbered air forces (NAFs) and lower-level establishments such as wings and groups. In some cases, divisions were also the higher headquarters for stand-alone squadrons; i.e., squadrons without associated same-function wings. Divisions were created during a 1948 reorganization of the Air Force that redesignated World War II wings as "divisions" and placed them immediately below the NAFs in the organizational hierarchy. In the years that followed, the Air Force "division" used several variations of the name (e.g., “missile division”; “strategic missile division”; "strategic aerospace division"; "space division"), but the most common designation was "air division." Official policy dictated the use of Arabic numerals for divisions in operational MAJCOMs, just as for wings and groups. Named divisions were generally found only in support commands and some of these still exist, but these are not considered air divisions as the term is generally defined (patches for those are contained in the R&D, T&E, and Logistics section of this gallery). Air divisions were gradually phased out of the Air Force command structure after the end of the Vietnam War, with the NAFs assuming direct command of their subordinate wings. The last air divisions were eliminated in 1992 during the reorganization of the Air Force’s MAJCOMs. Patches and emblems of these organizations are presented here in numerical order, and for each numerical designation, in chronological order when more than one name was used. The “oddballs” in this album are the air division-level organizations that did not have the word “division” in their designation: Air Task Force Thirteen, and the Strategic Warfare Center (the Strategic Missile Center patch is located in the Vandenberg album).