Wwii, U.S. Naval Transport VRF-1 Squadron and 50 similar items

WWII, U.S. NAVAL TRANSPORT VRF-1 SQUADRON PATCH, NAVAL AIR FERRY COMMAND, 1943-1945 4" Wool felt, cheesecloth backing squadron patch for the 1st Naval Ferrying Command, part of the US Naval Transport Squadron during World War II. VRF-1 as it was designated had over 500 squadrons during the war, and carried supplies, war materiel, and troops in and out of multiple theaters of war. The pilots and aircrewmen who wore this patch helped win the war by keeping the fighting forces of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps well supplied. Patch is near mint. The Flight Jacket patch depicts a goggled, red-white-and-blue, streamlined stork, winging across a map of North America carrying a F6F baby was the flashy new squadron insignia adopted by Ferry units at Naval Air Station, NY. The insignia was officially approved by the Bureau of Aeronautics. Between December 1943 and November 1945, the Naval Air Ferry Command, headquartered at Floyd Bennett Field, ferried 75,000 aircraft. VRF-1, the largest of the command's four ferry squadrons, based at Floyd Bennett, ferried 46,000 aircraft, in 450,000 flight hours, over 80,000,000 miles. Between the ADU and Ferry Command, 1941-1945, nearly 100,000 Navy aircraft were deployed. The Naval Air Ferry Command was commissioned on the first of December 1943. While the predecessor Aircraft Delivery Unit was under local command of NAS New York and the Bureau of Aeronautics, the Ferry Command was an air wing of the Naval Air Transport Service, under the Chief of Naval Operations. The ferry command was a much larger and more complex operation than the ADU. Wartime aircraft production was reaching its peak, and the Navy needed an organization able to keep up with the scale and complexity of maximum aircraft production from plants across the country. NAS New York was the command headquarters (all squadrons), and base for squadrons VRF-1, VRS-1 and VRF-4. The Ferry Command was housed in Floyd Bennett's Hangars 9 and 10, except VRF-4 was in Hangar B. The National Park Service demolished Hangars 9 and 10 in the early 1990's. Hangar B is still standing and serves as home to the Historic Aircraft Restoration Project. VRF-1 was the largest squadron in the history of the US Navy. The transfer of pilots from the ADU's Ferry Division to VRF-1 was believed to be the largest mass transfer of officers up to that time. VRF-1 Training Detachment - NAS Willow Grove. By December 1943, air traffic at NAS New York was so congested that the ferry command moved its training detachment to NAS Willow Grove Pennsylvania. Pilots received additional ground and flight training, and indoctrination into specific requirements of the ferry command.