History of the Patch

	OR-065 Aurora Composite Squadron "Fearless Falcons" Version 2

In the Fall of 1999, I became the newly appointed cadet commander of the Aurora Composite Squadron. Feeling that the squadron needed to develop some sort of a new identity, I challenged the cadets in the squadron to a patch designing contest. Having not specified any particular mascot and/or shape for the new patch there was some dissent and ultimately not enough votes to go around to pacify our need for the new emblem. From that point on, I decided to hold a vote for a mascot and slogan which after minimal debate was settled unanimously as "The Fearless Falcons."

The new identity gave substance to our patch designing process. Since everyone new we were the "falcons" now, it was basically a solicitation of what orientation the falcon would be at on our patch. Additionaly, the cadets felt that there should also be some other items on the patch that would be of significance. These included Mt Hood in the foreground and the letters "VT" which was a memorial to Lt Col Emil Veer and Capt Chuck Thomas, two of our finest pilots in Oregon, who perished in a plane crash during the Pacfic Region Mountain Flying Clinic. After several months, we refined the image over and over. In fact, Some of the original artwork (or, "chicken scratch") is still around my house somewhere.

Ultimately, the creation of an actual embroidered patch would be delayed until the Fall of 2000. I joined the USAF in September of 2000 and left the artwork with the new Cadet Commander. He took it down to a local screen printing shop who re-drew the artwork and sent it off to have 50 of them made. This "original" version of the patch [shown here on the right] came back from the shop with some significant flaws. There was no Mt Hood and the colors were in the wrong places.

In 2003, I was now the Deputy Commander for Cadets for Aurora Composite Squadron, I took the original design to my close friend, Mr. Thad Jackson, who was a graphics design student at Portland State University. Over a cold beer one night, he told me that he needed an additional design to add to his graduate portfolio. He was in luck, because it just so happened to be that I was looking to redesign our squadron patch to a form that better reflected what the old group of cadets and I had originally wanted our squadron patch to look like.

Finally in 2006, after going through all of the appropriate channels for approval we began using the design on all of our letterheads and T-Shirts. Ultimately, we scrounged up enough money to get the patches made. In fact, it turned out that one of our "Cadet-moms" had an embroidery business and she custom made all of our patches for us.

This leaves us where we are at today. I am now the squadron commander and I have the priviledge of seeing our cadets sporting a patch that they are all very proud to wear on their BDUs.

Information provided by:
Captain Matthew J Brewer, Commander
Aurora Composite Squadron 65
June 2007