Artifact Details
This embroidered patch was used by the Weather Research Squadron Provisional-IV, known within the Agency as Detachment G. The small—about 1.75 inches by 2.5 inches—patch contains the letters “WRSP IV” on the top within a decorative banner above a knight helmet and castle imagery.
During the development of the U-2, CIA needed a cover story for its aircraft and associated overseas operations. In February 1956, as the U-2 was completing final testing, U-2 program manager Richard Bissell decided that the best cover for the deployment of the U-2 was a mission of high-altitude weather research by the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA), known today as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
To help live the cover, the first Agency U-2 detachment, consisting of four aircraft and pilots, was publicly known as the 1st Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, Provisional (WRSP-1). The "provisional" designation gave the U-2 detachments greater security because provisional Air Force units did not have to report to headquarters. WRSP-1, known within the Agency as Detachment A, began deploying to the United Kingdom on 29 April 1956.
Detachment G was established in 1957 when CIA personnel and aircraft relocated from Groom Lake, Nevada, to Edwards Air Force Base in California. After the downing of pilot Francis Gary Powers and his U-2 over the Soviet Union in 1960 and the resulting exposure of the cover story, there a was a complete halt to all U-2 operations from overseas bases for more than six months. During this time, pilots and aircraft from Detachments B and C were consolidated into Detachment G at Edwards Air Force Base and deployed overseas as needed.