which unit marking is this?

[paul_c]

heres a couple of pics of a flying jacket that we managed to 'liberate' from a bus in Al Udied airbase, Qatar, on our way back from Basrah last week! any ideas which unit the badge belongs to and what they fly? the jacket is going to end up on the wall in our crew room in Culdrose as a gizzet (by the way, before anyone says anything, it's not stealing, it was left on the bus! you snooze, you loose and all that! )

Edited December 26, 2008 by paul_c

[daz greenwood]

Looks like VF-111 "Sundowners"

[alex]

would guess the same as Daz. At least they have the same pattern on their airpanes.

Alex

[paul_c]

would guess the same as Daz. At least they have the same pattern on their airpanes.

Alex

thats a US Navy unit yes? what do they fly? the only Navy aircraft i saw there were P-3 Orions and Greyhounds in the circuit so i guess it's one of those?

[Richard E]

They're a former F14 squadron that now flies the Northrop F5 Tiger in the aggressor/adversary role so the jacket is rather a long way from home.

[alex]

yes, it's USN.

For more details see the Wikipedia entry. However, the unit disbandled in 1995. So maybe that's just a lookalike, or a really old one.

Alex

[upnorth]

Well, if you picked it up recently, I'd say it's out of step in both timeframe and unit tasking for the Sundowners.

As has been pointed out, the Sundowners ceased Tomcat operations in the 90s and in recent years were re-established as an aggressor unit flying F-5s.

The only two rational explanations for this design of name tag on a USN flight jacket, to my mind are:

1:

Not a unit related design, but reflective of unit basing. That is, whatever unit the jacket's former owner is from, they may have been regularly based in Japan. I believe the US Navy still keeps a base at Atsugi.

2:

If indeed connected to the Sundowners, it could simply be a Sundowner's pilot seconded to a front line unit. Aggressor pilots are a very experienced lot and that experience would indeed be very useful, even temporarily, to a front line unit.

[kolja]

Looks like VF-111 "Sundowners"

Except those aren't Navy wings. Those are Air Force pilot wings....

And I have no idea what Air Force unit uses that sort of motif. I do seem to recall a C-130 unit at Yokota AB when I was stuck there for a while, but they lacked the common courtesy to show up to the bar while I was polluting myself so I have no idea if that's their design or not.

[KS-Flyer]

Cant see the pic (red-X), but the KC-135 unit (91st ARS) at MacDill has a sundown style on their name tags. And they send crews to the 'Deid when their rotation comes up, so that is a possibility.

-Jeff

Edit -- A quick look back at this thread when I got home where Photobucket isnt blocked and yes, this the 91st ARS' name tags. Congrats on your find.

Edited January 8, 2009 by KS-Flyer