The Minnesota Wing Gremlin
by Major Andrew "Ace" Browning, CAP Historian

In the beginning...
The first Civil Air Patrol shoulder sleeve insignia, designed by the Office of the Quartermaster General, War Department, was authorized for wear by CAP non-commissioned officers on February 13, 1942. Evoking the basic Civil Defense emblem of a white triangle inside a 3" blue disk, a unique red three-blade propeller was added to the center of the patch, worn on left sleeve of the Army Air Corps uniform, one-half inch below the shoulder seam. The same patch was also authorized for commissioned officers two months later. Three versions of this patch followed in the next three years. First, the letters "US" were added to the blue disk, just below the white triangle. Then, a red arc with "Civil Air Patrol" stitched in white was added above the blue disk. All three designs included a variation with the word "CADET" stitched in red on white rocker that was placed below the blue disk.

Origin of the Gremlin...
In 1942, America's commitment to the war across the Pacific was total, and everyone back home in the states was expected to make sacrifices and do their part. Members of the fledging Civil Air Patrol were beginning to find themselves in a major role of homeland support of America's war efforts. Meanwhile over in Europe, a young British aviator in the Royal Air Force began writing down stories being told by his fellow pilots. One of the stories that Flight Lieutenant Roald Dahl was writing, was about Gremlins - small, mischievous, fanciful creatures that RAF pilots swore would cause havoc on their warplanes, bringing about all kinds of problems for them and the Allied Forces in the sky. The story recounted the adventures of a wounded fighter pilot who befriends a Gremlin named Gus, and convinces him to recruit his fellow gremlins to join the RAF in their fight against the Axis powers.

The original story by Roald Dahl, before it was even published, was brought to the attention of Walt Disney who thought it would be the perfect project for his animation studio that had been working on training films for the military. Dahl came to the Disney studio to work on the Gremlin project, and Disney artist Bill Justice was assigned to do some sketches and create new cartoon characters that would fit the author's descriptions. With Justice's unique renderings, supported by full color paintings from fellow Disney artists Al Dempster and Mary Blair, Dahls' story was finally brought to life in a Walt Disney children's book entitled simply, The Gremlins. There were only 5000 copies of the book published in 1943.

Disney's abandonment...
Even with a film still in limbo, Walt Disney continued to market "The Gremlins" project through comic books featuring art by Walt Kelly, plush dolls, and even product tie-ins. Gremlin-fever had started to catch on in America. References and various images of the little sprites started to appear everywhere, and Disney struggled to maintain the rights to its characters' image in the minds of the country. Even a competing studio, Warner Bros, had already put out a cartoon short called "Falling Hare" which featured Bugs Bunny going to a military base and meeting up with a mischievous Gremlin who gets the better of him. The development of the Disney's film portion of the project continued to drag on through 1943.

It is not known exactly why Walt Disney decided to pull his studio out of "The Gremlins" film, but probably mostly out of frustration. People were starting to tire of WWII-themed films; an acceptable screen play had not been completed; Roald Dahl was starting to be displeased with they way things were going; and even England's Air Ministry was bugging Walt with concern that their beloved Gremlins would be portrayed incorrectly. Even though the Disney studio had already spent a good deal of time and money in developing this project, Walt reluctantly decided to cancel further production of a film barely a year after they had started.

Minnesota Wing adopts an orphan...
In a major show of patriotism, Walt Disney Productions had been creating hundreds of emblems for the American military during World War II. Shortly after Civil Air Patrol came under control and direction of the Army Air Forces, Minnesota Wing submitted a request to Disney for permission to use one of their Gremlins in an emblem. Major Horace E Read, Minnesota's second?/third? Wing Commander, announced in March 1943 that the folks at the Disney studios had agreed to get behind Minnesota Wing's request and design an emblem featuring a Gremlin.

Walt Disney himself assigned the job of creating military insignia to Hank Porter, staff artist of the Disney Publicity Art Department. In return, he was responsible for creating many of Civil Air Patrol's WWII-era emblems. When Hank Porter became overcome with insignia design requests, he called on fellow artists George Goepper, Van Kauffman, Ed Parks, Roy Williams, and Bill Justice to assist him. Although not confirmed, it is probable that Bill Justice designed Minnesota Wing's shoulder patch.

Also during this time, the Women Airforce Service Pilots asked permission to use another image from the project as their official mascot. Disney granted the WASPs the rights to a female Gremlin, named Fifinella.

As soon as 1944, members in the wing had already started making their own unofficial Gremlin patches and wearing them on the right shoulder of their flight suits, the national patch still being worn on the left. Some hand-painted leather or canvas flight jacket patches were also very likely to have been made. National Headquarters did not authorize wear of any state patch until Pennsylvania Wing's design on May 18, 1948. After years of somewhat secretive use, Minnesota Wing's Gremlin patch was finally approved by National Headquarters for wear on April 4, 1950.

The national shoulder patch was finally phased out on December 31, 1954 and replaced by distinctive wing patches on the left sleeve which all wings had now been mandated to incorporate. However it wasn't until September 1961 that Civil Air Patrol Manual 39-1 required the wear of a wing or region patch by all members on coats (except raincoats), jackets, shirts worn as outer garments, and flying suits. On December 1, 1978, the third version of the national patch was reinstated to be worn by overseas cadet squadrons on U.S. military installations. The white "Cadet" tab, however, was never worn again.

The Gremlin's rebirth...
Minnesota Wing's Gremlin started life in the early 1940s, hand sewn by founding members to be as close a resemblance to Disney's character as they were capable. Once the patches were authorized and produced in greater numbers, they were also probably made by a number of manufacturers and the cartoon-ish Gremlin began to morph. The large eyes became piercing dots, the nose and gloved hands disappeared, and the boots turned into massive shoulders. What evolved might be described as a stylized-Viking, and although somewhat appropriate for Minnesota, it was not correct to the original emblem design.

During the mid-1990s, the wing started to use the original Disney character in various ways, most viably on the monthly "Wing-Tips" newsletter, volleyball T-shirts, annual ski trip bandanas, and the 1999-2002 cadet encampment patch. In 1997, Captain Andrew Browning of Farmington Composite Squadron had 200 Special-edition collector wing patches manufactured using the Gremlin as it was originally intended. Then, nearly fifty-eight years after Walt Disney approved use of his Gremlin character, Colonel Dale E Hoium, Minnesota Wing Commander, approved a new and accurate patch design for wear on April 14, 2001. The previous half-century old patch was officially retired from use on December 31, 2001.