WW II-US Army Air Force TB2

This travel bug has the modest goal to circulate more than five ye12rs and to be moved by at least 25 cachers.  As of 17-Nov-19 it had survived for 1.7 years and had been moved by 6 cachers.

Please drop it in rural OR Premium Member Only caches.  Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security.  Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items.  Otherwise, take the travel bug anywhere you wish.  No permission is needed to leave the U.S.

Travel bug photos are appreciated and will be re-posted here.

Replica Shoulder Patch. This patch was purchased at the Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, TX.  The museum preserves and promotes the history of the World War II military glider program.  The gift shop sell replica shoulder patches of military units supervising or glider in their missions.  The museum is located on the site of the World War II South Plains Army Air Field, where about 80% of the glider pilots were trained between 1942 and 1945.  Among many exhibits, the museum houses a faithfully restored example of the nearly the nearly 15,000 WACO CG-4A gliders built during the war effort.
 
The United States Army Air Forces were the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II.  It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the Services of Supply (which in 1943 became the Army Service Forces), and the AAF.  Each of these forces had a commanding general who reported directly to the Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
 
The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943.  By VE Day it had 1.25 million men stationed overseas and operated from more than 1,600 airfields worldwide.
 
The Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in June 1941 to provide the air arm a greater autonomy in which to expand more efficiently, and to provide a structure for the additional command echelons required by a vastly increased force.  Although other nations already had separate air forces independent of the army or navy (such as the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe), the USAAF remained a part of the United States Army until the United States Air Force came into being in September 1947.