<p>Emblem of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Wing" class="extiw" title="en:3rd Wing">3rd Wing</a>, a <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wing_emblems_of_the_United_States_Air_Force" title="Wing emblems of the United States Air Force">wing</a> of the <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force" title="United States Air Force">United States Air Force</a>
</p>
<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Blazon">Blazon</span></h3>
<p>Party per bend vert and sable in chief a cactus (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Opuntia" title="Category:Opuntia">prickly pear</a>) or, a bend azure fimbriated of the third, all within a bordure argent charged with nineteen crosses patee of the second.
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<h3><span class="mw-headline" id="Significance">Significance</span></h3>
The shield is divided diagonally into the original colors of the Air Service, green and black.  Over the dividing line is a band of the Air Force’s, present colors, ultramarine blue and golden yellow representative of the Rio Grande River dividing the US and Mexico.  On the green field is a yellow cactus commemorating the group’s first patrols along the Mexican border.  Around the shield is a white border with black German crosses equal to the number of aerial victories credited to the Group’s original squadrons during <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/World_War_I" title="World War I">the Great War</a>.
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force" title="United States Air Force">United States Air Force</a>
AFHRA <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/rso/wings_groups_pages/0003wg.asp">[1]</a>