When I clicked on the thumbnail of the ACGS patch on your site, it identified it as the last Photomapping patch. Well, it is and it isn't.

It is the patch of the last organization DEDICATED to aerial surveying and photomapping with aircraft; however, ACGS was NOT the last organization assigned the Photomapping mission.

When ACGS was inactivated in 1972 the remaining photomapping resources AND THE MISSION were assigned to the 9th Weather Reconnaisance Wing at McClellan AFB, CA. The photo aircraft were assigned to one of the Wing's squadrons at Kessler AFB, MS. To recognize the assumption of the Photomapping mission, the 9th Wing placed a symbolic aircraft with an aerial camera right in the center of their unit patch--surrounded by symbols of their other three missions; i.e., weather recon, storm tracking, and the tracking of radioactive products from nuclear events. The 9th continued to perform the photomapping mission until late 1975. At that time the mission was dropped as an Air Force responsiblity and all related aircraft were reconfigured for other missions. Satellites had taken over almost completly. The GPS Satellites could do the surveying and multi-agency photo satellites could provide the mapping imagery. Any small, residual requirements could be satisfied through civilian contracts.

So, as I see it, the 9th Weather Reconnnaisance Wing patch would actually be that of the last Photomapping unit.

Gordon Barnes