Official USAF 17th ATKS Bulls Combat Command Patch — Eyes Everywhere, Hellfire on Demand
The Bulls don't need to be in the cockpit to be in the fight — they've been delivering precision lethality from the other side of the world for over two decades.
The 17th Attack Squadron — the 'Bulls' — is one of the United States Air Force's premier remotely piloted aircraft units, assigned to the 432d Wing at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. But the squadron's history stretches far beyond the drone age. Originally constituted as the 17th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on July 14, 1942, the unit flew unarmed Lockheed F-5 Lightning reconnaissance aircraft on hazardous missions over enemy-held territory across the South Pacific during World War II — from Guadalcanal and New Guinea to the Solomon Islands, Bismarck Archipelago, the Philippines, and Central Burma. After the war, the squadron was reactivated in 1951 as a tactical reconnaissance unit at Shaw Air Force Base, flying the RF-84F Thunderflash, RF-101C Voodoo, and RF-4C Phantom II across NATO bases in France, England, and West Germany through the Cold War before inactivating in 1979. The Bulls returned to service on March 8, 2002, reactivated at what is now Creech AFB to fly the MQ-1 Predator, and added the larger, more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper in 2006. Today, the 17th ATKS conducts intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and precision strike operations with the MQ-9, providing persistent overwatch and on-call firepower to combatant commanders around the globe. This combat command patch represents the Bulls' unique place in modern warfare — where the fight never ends and the eye in the sky never blinks.
