100 Missions Up North
DAYTON, Ohio - On display: 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (TEWS) patch worn by Staff Sgt. Underwood. F-4 aircrews had several styles of 100 mission patches. Maj. William Clarke, an RF-4C pilot in the 14th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron at Udorn, Thailand, donated this patch and party suit showing two different kinds. His party suit also has a Night Owl patch for flying at least 25 night reconnaissance missions and a Railroad Runners patch for flying along the railroad line from Hanoi to the Chinese border.F-4 and RF-4C aircrews also had their own playing card style patch for 100 missions and for 200 missions. Lt. Joel “Tom” Coney’s 100 mission RF-4 playing card patch (with North Vietnam tab). Coney, an RF-4C weapon system’s operator (WSO), also had a custom patch made to show his 228 mission total. From March 1968-March 1969, Capt. Wayne Pittman, 12th TRS, flew on 186 RF-4C combat missions over North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He could not reveal his classified missions over Cambodia, so he had this patch made as SEA MISC (Southeast Asia Miscellaneous). Clark wore these F-4 patches together on his party suit like a poker four-of-a-kind hand. It represented his objective to stay in combat until he had 400 missions. Tour limitations and being shot down once, however, limited his nonetheless impressive total to 269 missions during three tours. Modeled after the F-105 North Vietnam patch, this shows 200 missions in Southeast Asia in an F-4 Phantom. F-100F Misty FACs spent much of their time over North Vietnam looking for targets, so they made patches that noted the number of hours flown over the North, like these donated by Misty FAC P.K. Robinson. Many aircrews put their 100 mission patches on their “party suits,” like this one from Capt. Patrick Savelli. An electronic warfare officer (EWO), he flew 100 missions in EB-66s and 100 missions in B-52Ds. (U.S. Air Force photo)