Patches

Yesterday in preparation for a post, I was scrambling through the Juvat Archive facility looking for a specific item.

Juvat Archive Facility 

(Yes, they paid me royalties in order to film here)

While the search for the object was ultimately unsuccessful, I did stumble upon a box that I had not seen in ages.  (No, Sarge, it was NOT the Ark of the Covenant. More's the pity.)  I was searching for the Surrendering Chicken patch mentioned in the post.  I was certain I had one somewhere.  

In fact, I discovered a box with the various patches I'd worn whilst flying in the Air Force.  A nostalgic trip down Memory Lane commenced. (And the post was poned... Try the veal, I'll be here all week.)

There was my UPT class patch

The slogan very well suited my view of my job at the time.  "To think, they pay me for this!"

Budding Yankee Air Pirates (Plus a few IPs)

Then it was off to F-4 RTU.

I have a hard time remembering that at one point, I had hair!

Then off to the Kun and the 80th TFS, the Juvats.

Wonder, in this Politically Correct Air Force, if this is still the Squadron Patch.

All I ever wanted to do at this point was to emulate the guy on the right.  The picture was taken after we returned from his last flight in the F-4 and the Air Force.  He'd flown for 20 years and never had a desk job.  We'd gone out on an air to ground sortie, quarter a bomb, nickel a hole.  I lost...a bunch!

His callsign was Fud, a play on his last name.
BTW, Sarge is tinkering on the radar just off the left of the picture.  I'm sure I wrote up the radar as "broked".

We even got to go TDY to Clark AB PI for Cope Thunder.  This, of course, required creation of a TDY Patch for plausible deniability.

My year complete, it was off to Moody and "the one with the gun".

Having two operational tours in a row, and recently married, it was time to "pay my dues".

Yes, I've flown THIS airplane.

A great assignment, that I didn't think would be all that good when I got it.  Lots of flying time with some great pilots, I learned a lot and hopefully imparted some of that to my students.  Additionally, some humorous (now) stories came out of that assignment.  But, the big reward came at the end.

An Eagle!  Seeing the patch reminded me that my first flight in the jet was single seat, which itself was an adventure, but my IP was a guy I'd gone to High School with.  Both of us were AF Brats and had lived on Webb.  The sortie was interesting.  He developed flight control problems, so we had to air abort and RTB.  I had to do the look over as he did a controllability check in the area. (Configure the aircraft to land, and, while still at altitude, slow down to landing speed.  This will hopefully identify any control issues you may have while still having the altitude to recover or eject if they are serious.)  So, I'm flying a jet I've never flown before, in formation with an emergency aircraft and will fly the approach with him.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  RTB was uneventful.  He landed, I went around.  The SOF told me to stay in the pattern and do low approaches.  Bore-Ing!

Then, finally, arrival at Kadena.

The Official Patches

But we did a lot of TDY.  

The TDY patches (the ones I can show on a family friendly blog anyhow)

The first year I was there, we deployed to Korea for 2 weeks, then back home for 2 weeks, then to Clark, then home, then Korea.  Which was a lot of fun and great flying, but it was hell on figuring out which side of the road to drive on!  I got pretty good at a James Bond style reversal when I would suddenly find myself looking at oncoming traffic.

Those TDY's resulted in some fabulous training and meeting some great fighter pilots from different Air Forces

Introduced me to Afterburners and cost me half a mustache!

Had an deployment to Nyutabaru AB for a little exercise.

Caption

Nyutabaru was our closest off island divert base.

Add caption

I don't remember the deployment, but I do remember the last night before RTB, or at least some of it.

But did I find the patch I was looking for?  Not exactly.

Add caption

This made no sense.  Our patches were on velcro, we'd sanitize our flight suits anytime we flew (to reinforce the habit), so why a subdued patch?  I'm sure someone made General with this brilliant idea!

And then,  in what seems to have been a blink of an eye, the flying was done.

  

Miss it?  

Yer Dam Skippy I do!