Hap Arnold emblem ; Army Air Forces shoulder sleeve insignia of Robert D. Fulkerson
2 1/2" diameter military specification color shoulder patch. A World War II era patch. The patch is to designate that wearer is a member of the "United States Army Air Forces." The Army Air Corps was designated as this on June 20, 1941. The background is dark blue felt. The wings are embroidered in gold thread. The star's five points are embroidered in white. The star's circular center is embroidered in red.
Robert "Bob" Fulkerson was in his sophomore year at D.U. when the U.S. entered World War II. He enlisted in 1942 but didn't enter active duty until the following year. He would become a navigator on a B-17 bomber that had to ditch into the North Sea. After four days in a life raft, he and the survivors of his crew beached on a German occupied Dutch Island. Bob would spend the rest of the war between three different prison camps beginning with Stalig Luft III where he was quartered in the North Compound. As the Russian army advanced, the Germans moved Fulkerson to Nuremberg, where he endured the harrowing experience of nearly being bombed by Allied forces. The Allied army drew close to Nuremberg two months later, and the Germans moved Fulkerson and the other prisoners again, sending them on a 75-mile nighttime march to a train that brought them to Stalag VIIA prison camp in Moosburg, near Munich. Not long afterward, Gen. George Patton liberated the Moosburg prison.