Recently I was looking at all the things I had collected that had to do with the F4.
The Phantom II mascot was called the Spook. He appeared on a lot of things from patches — to letter head that I used to write home during the war — to the Spook in an arctic parka that my wife got in Alaska on a 43rd Squadron ceramic tile trivet.
Then there were other obvious things: unit patches from the 310 TFTS, 13 TFS, and 43rd TFS — TFS was a Tactical Flying Squadron.
F4 other things include belt buckles, mugs, cups, photos, and models and special patches that were worn on party suits. Below is a 13 TFS Christmas Card from 1973.
While I was in Thailand, I got a model of the F4 that had my name on the rear cockpit. I still have nearly 50 years later.
Below commemorative patches and fighter related mottos.
My wife Bonnie even did an oil painting of the bird I flew in Arizona.
Probably the most important memorabilia about my flying I no longer have. After visiting the Air Force museum in September, I decided to donate my 8 mm home movies of combat and a tape recording I made of the last F4 mission of the Vietnam War that took off from Udorn Thailand. I did this because I wanted to make sure that they were preserved as important artifacts of the war. I had previously transferred them to a Cd and a DVD and knew that they would probably just be tossed someday. That still leaves me with a great deal of F4 “stuff” to deal with in the future. But I am sure that given time I will find a good home for it all.
I still have most of mine. Already posted the picture of my flying gear in the local museum. My Iloveme wall has all my squadrons, High Flight, and a Spitfire I bought at the River Rats II at Ramstein in 1977. I dug that mug out to put in this picture.
Love the F4D. Udorn 67-68. Weapons Mechanic. Elgin AFB. We went as a squadron in October 68. I could load them bombs today like it was yesterday. Ha ha.