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Information provided by:
Maj Joshua Bauer, NC-007
September 8, 2008
The Story of the Gumby Patch
"Gumby became our unofficial [mascot] about 4 to 5 years ago, when we adopted the motto of Semper Gumby. This was a result of a cadet noticing that we always had to remain flexible to accomplish our missions. The cadet, with the last name of Storm, sugjested the new motto and it stuck."
"A short time laterm, a friend of our Operations Officer and now Deputy Commander for Cadets, drew a cartoon of Gumby in our squadron aircraft. This was also turned into a special award for exceptional service to the squadron, and first presented to Major Robert Wright for significant contributions to squadron flying operations. Around this time, the Gumby patch was born. And the rest, as is said, is history."
Information provided by:
Joe Myers, NC-019
May 22, 2009
The proposed insignia consists of a circular green field with a bendlet of blue in dexter which represents the green of Greenville subdivided by the Tar River. This scheme is derived from the official colors and flag of the city of Greenville, the location of the squadron.
The charge on the superior portion of the field are three stars representing the three missions of the CAP. The center element on the field is a small version of the emblem of the Civil Air Patrol situated upon a figure of the state of North Carolina at a position representing the location of Greenville.
The superior tab denotes "Pitt-Greenville" and the inferior "79th Comp. Squadron" in an arc about the top and bottom of the circular field. These derive from the squadron's name, location, and charter number.
A History of the Squadron
The squadron was originally chartered in 1980 and all that is known to this point is that the squadron existed. The current iteration started with exploratory meetings in June 2010 as a provisional flight of the Tar River Composite Squadron (MER-NC-057) based in Rocky Mount, NC. By mid-October, the prospective squadron had seven senior members and nine cadets and a reactivation of the charter was applied for.
The charter re-activated on 1 November 10 and has grown to twelve cadets and ten seniors (including seven pilots). We established a headquarters on 4 January 2011 at the National Guard Armory located at the Pitt-Greenville Airport.
Information provided by:
Captain David Nelson, NC-079 Commander
February 22, 2011