The photo and narrative are from Joe Stremph's Flickr Page.
Mine eyes have seen the glory...
For those not familiar with the story
of VMFA-122, they're a Marine Corps F/A-18 squadron that was known for
decades as the "Crusaders." A few years back, they deployed to Iraq,
and it was felt that, given the sensitivity of our Muslim hosts in that
country, it might not be good to conjure up images of knights of
Christendom if we're serious about all that hearts-and-minds stuff that
is so essential to nation-building and counterinsurgency. So they
changed the name to the "Werewolves," which was actually what -122 was
called during WWII, so there a legacy there worth preserving. While I'm
not as upset about the name change as many others, it is kind of a
bummer, as I loved the old shield/cross emblem they used to wear on
their tails. While I've photographed several Werewolves' F/A-18s since
the change, I never noticed until today that the eyes of the Werewolf on
the tail have crosses for pupils, discretely keeping the Crusader
legacy alive.
Bravo Zulu,
Semper Fi, etc. etc.
Oh, and
for the Brits and the Dutch, this was BuNo 164268/DC-14 @ Phoenix-Mesa
Gateway.
VMAQ-2 did that when the went from the "Playboys" to the "Panthers". They put little bunnies in the panthers eyes.
ReplyDeleteNow they're the "Death Jesters". Which I find strange.