I once thought about wearing my old flight jacket out in public, but then I saw a preschooler wearing a jacket that had much cooler patches than mine. It reminded me of something I had heard from one of my squadron skippers, an F-8 MiG killer. "My grandmother once told me that there are only two kinds of people in this world that care that you are a fighter pilot - little boys and other fighter pilots." She scored her own kill that day.

When I was flying with VMA-223 "Bulldogs" (AV-8B Harriers) our designated real world tactical call sign was "Lime." However, in late 1992 we has just returned from a WESTPAC deployment and sent 5 jets to NAS Key West to be in the movie True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger . You'll hear in that movie when Arnold calls the Harriers in to stop the terrorists trucks on the bridge that he uses the real world tactical callsign "Lime" which I thought was pretty neat.

I was a "despondent" husband of a Naval enlistee. Stationed in Thurso, Scotland during the run-up to Desert Storm, we were very close to the UK's MOD training range there in the very northern tip of Scotland. I had a job, which required that I commute to Wick. No big deal, I had a motorcycle and loved riding it. Great section of road had a steep left dive into a dingle with a left-right ascending out of it. One day, on my way to work, just as I exit my assent from the dingle - a Tornado flies by JUST overhead (I mean JUST overhead). Really low, really fast. I think "That's cool! What are the chances of that happening again?" Next day, at the exact same spot, I get buzzed again. "Wow! What a coincidence!" Third day, at the exact same spot, I get buzzed AGAIN! Uh, not a coincidence anymore, I'm a target. This guy is using me as a training target. He's waiting for me to pop out of that dingle and let me know - "If you were my mission, you're dead now." This continued until the local community complained that these low, noisy, high speed over-flights were scaring their sheep. Then they went off to fight. As I understand it, the Tornado crews took a great many casualties in the early days of the campaign. I really hope the guy that used me as target practice made it back home. I have no way of knowing.

One time I Was planning a cross country flight in a rented Cessna 172 and talking with the flight service station guy I asked if I could put a tactical call sign in and he says that he never tried it with a civilian plane before but he would give it a go. He said it had to be no more than seven characters long, so I chose KILLR02. To his surprise, the system accepted it and I got to use a cool call sign for that flight. However when I landed, Tower asked me to give them a call and they said that I wasn’t supposed to do that ever again :-)

VF143 !!!! PUKIN DOGS.... I was a white shirt , launched Harley Hall on his last sortie on the Big E. God bless him, one hell of a pilot..

I'm disappointed that the Bear Aces didn't re-work their patch to be similar as before, but a bear.

1966, my first mission as a nugget in an Army Assault Helicopter Company in Vietnam. It's a hot combat assault and I'm a bit overloaded at the brief, but got the essentials except couldn't understand our daily assigned call signs. So... after preflight, and other preps I asked my aircraft commander to clarify. Our (slicks) call sign was "Wavey Crumpet" and the gun ships was "Ragged Scooper", neither of which could be remotely pronounced by a VC/NVA radio operator to intrude in our comms. Fooled 'them' by golly!

Always interesting stuff Mooch. Thankfully, as maintainers we used the actual aircraft side number i.e. 610, not the BUNO or bureau number i.e. 159587. And, being in a Prowler squadron, we were usually spotted in the corral, or on El 2 if we weren't right behind one of the JBDs. Relatively safer in the corral. The worst was launching off of Cat 4, and being the outboard side final checker. There's absolutely no room between you and the catwalk. I still miss this stuff 40 years later!

Clean sweep when you were a department head-an accomplishment to be very proud of. As well as the rest of your distinguished career. And now doing a great job telling Navy history in a very entertaining and informative way.

Ward, thank you for spending some time with us to share your patches and explaining the call signs of squadrons.

My Dad was a pilot in VA 46 Squadron, the Clansmen, under Commander Mcdougall on board the USS Randolph, a WW2 Essex class carrier back in the 1950s. He made his own home movies, that all of us kids grew up watching from a reel to reel projector, of f9f Cougars with the Scottish Tartan stripes on the tails. It was so cool to watch take off and recovery operations that he recorded from the Island of the carrier and we would invite our friends over to watch these movies with us. They were based down in Pensacola, Florida and were part of fleet operations in the Mediterranean during the 50s. Thanks Ward, for sharing your video. It brought back some memories that I hadn't thought about for some years.

Clear! As mud .. in Mississippi .. in the Spring LOL

We had a pilot in our squadron at Bitburg AB back in the 80's whose last name was Torres. Really good stick and a fun guy who ended up with the callsign, "Cleat". Pretty funny when you put them together.

6:15 The world famous and well- traveled Screwbirds. We go wherever we please and we please everywhere we go :D

Multiple centurion patches on a flight jacket certainly say "I've been there", but a "Top Ten" patch sets you apart from your peers.

Ward, you're one of the all-time best storytellers! We are all fortunate that you have a passion for Aviation. Can't wait for your next video and thanks for starting this channel.

I shouldn't be watching all these but they're just so damn interesting! Can't turn them off.

My dad flew A-1 Skyraiders with the 22d Special Operations Squadron- the Zorros. Initially it was formed to fly nights over the Ho Chi Minh trail, but that mission was later spread to all 3 A-1 squadrons. As was the “Sandy” SAR commander role.

Inside baseball: the 2-letter code on carrier planes will begin with "A" for east coast squadrons, "N" for west coast. (I flew S-3A's in VS-28, the "Gamblers", which is how I know. Our code was "AE", so in the domestic air traffic control system we were "Navy Alpha-Echo 704". Always a number beginning with 7.)

Your channel brings back a lot of memories. Thanks! I served in VF-24 Fighting Renegades as an airframer from 83-87. At the time our sister squadron was VF-211 Fighting Checkmates whose tail art was a checker board.

Mooch, my brother was stationed on CV-66 from 1978-1982. He was a maintenance equipment mechanic. I visited him on my way to Germany in the AF, he took me aboard for a tour. My first time on a carrier. The Nimitz was moored next to the America. The size difference was impressive. I have to admit, carrier flying takes a lot more guts than air bases where you can come in at a leisurely pace, roll down the runway and coast to a stop, then take 10 minutes to taxi back to park!

I was an AE at Cecil Field VA 174 RAG 65 to ‘69 on new A7’s. Our patch was the “Hell Razors”designed by Walt Disney. I may be mistaken, but one of your videos I saw, I thought you said you were there also around the same time. I love your videos and this one was great. I have a pretty good collection of Navy and Air Force patches that I collected over my 35 years total that included 31 years as air technician in the Mass Air Guard 102nd FW. THANKS Mooch!

Induvial call signs, are amusing to say the least, most of the time anyway. I knew a Marine cobra pilot years ago, who had his original call changed to *Bend-Um*, after he bent up a brand new AH-1 Cobra while training @ 29 Palms Marine Base. When we recovered the bent up aircraft, we all took note of the only three arm cactus in the grid, being *Bend-Um's) point of contact. Needless to say, *Bend-Um* had lots of questions to answer by the end of that day.

Well done! Great insight and thank you for sharing

Loved my old squadron's tactical call sign Swampfox...

As always, very cool stuff! Thank you Sir!

My favourite squadron is the Jolly Roger 🏴‍☠️

As usual, you're fascinating Mooch... This stuff has always been fascinating, it's awesome you pulling the curtain back. Keeps taking me back to "the Bridges at Toko Ri"....that was first whiff.

Mooch, you left out, "...and a partridge in a pear tree." 8:08 :) Thanks for the clarification. That explains Randy Cunningham's Showtime 100. In retrospect, I guess Robin Olds had a little leeway when naming the flights for his Operation Bolo. He chose car brands (Rambler, Dodge, etc), and his flight obviously, was Olds.

The last unit I flew with on my last tour in Vietnam, our callsigns were 'Charliehorse" Then your number.

As usual great job Ward. When in VS-29 doing cross countries we would generally file as DRGN# - the Dragonfires. I guess our Base Ops was more flexible. Not sure if an old wive's tale, but supposedly in 29 prior to my tenure, one aircrew filed as "DUDE" on a x-country. And they never checked in w the SDO on landing the x-country. SDO started calling all over to locate based upon the standard taxonomy NG7xx. Then tried permutations of DRGNx - no joy. The aircrew got their arses handed to them for filing as "DUDE". BZ, keep up the good work.

I'd love to see a video of famous carrier mustaches of the late 80's, early 90's. Great channel. Subscribed.

I was a BN in VA-65 (1972-75), VA-42 (1979-1982), and VA-34 (1982-85) and proud to have used Cupcake, Atombuster, and Blaster callsigns.

Cool stuff! Great insight into the arcane world of Naval aviation/joint ops. I can only imagine the guys tasked with coming up with the call signs trying to amuse themselves with the job while being creative with it (on a rather disrelated subject, I was on vacation at Yellowstone a while back and at dinner decided, purely on its name, to try a beer called "Moose Drool" from the Big Sky brewery. I could picture the guys tasked with naming it saying, "Hey, I got one, Moose Drool"! and the chorus of "Good one" from the others).

Great video Ward and just adding VFA 151 Vigilantes/Switches/Switchbox to the list. According to squadron history it got the name Switchbox due to the black and gold stripe pattern colors on the tail that resembled a trainyard switchbox. 😎👍✨

Love all your content Ward. Keep up the great work, Sir!!

Mooch! Great episode. VF-211's JANAP name is "Nickel". In 1986ish we did a DET at Luke AFB and were hosted by the 555th Fighter Squadron. They no kidding tried to buy the callsign from us. Did the research and those things can in fact be moved. The problem was the replacement we would have gotten was so revolting that it nixxed the deal. Brought up some long forgotten memories. VF-154 = City Desk

The 8TH USAAF frowned upon my Dad's outfit (44TH BG) calling themselves "The Flying 8 Balls." Mascot is hilarious.

That was a lot of work Ward. Thank you that was very interesting for a non vet, non flyer.

VA-65 was my grandfather's squadron. He flew A-6A's in 66 off of the Constellation, callsign 'Rusty'.

I absolutely loved the Raising Arizona clip!! “Them there’s code names.”😆😂😆😂

Very informative enjoyed it very much .. thank you !

I remember years ago I was working a block of airspace in the NW of Australia and I had a Squardon of 6 Army OH58 Kiowa’s (Military version of the B206 Jetranger) transiting thru. Their callsign was ARMYGEDDON01. It still is the best callsign I ever came across.

Good job , Ward as usual!!!!. You're a fantastic mentor to those of us not that much new but still new to the intricacies of Naval Aviation.

Jim Powell speaking. Speaking of the Clifton award, my squadron the VF-154 Black Knights flying the F4 Phantom J bird, won the Clifton award in the early 70’s. I was an AQ and to this day call VF-154 the best fighter squadron in the Navy. No bias here.

As usual absolutely superb!

When I was at the school house as a Helo Flight Engineer in training assigned to 512th SOS (MH-60G) in 95-96, our call sign was “Ghost” and if I was flying with the Squadron Commander, the call sign was “Ghost Zero One”.

Interesting insights as always! Thanks for sharing

The Pukin Dogs were stationed aboard the USS George Washington (CVN-73) while i was aboard. Always thought that the name was perfect for a group of joystick jockies! ^-^

Great idea reviewing your jacket and callsigns. A callsign that really stands out in my mind: Superheats (VF-162 F-8's Oriskany Tonkin Gulf)

awesome! my favorites are definitely the Tomcat and Centurion patches

The Raymond callsign is used by ACC Command Posts hence the reason for multiples. I was stationed at Mt Home from 2000-02 in the 22d ARS Mules and we used the onstation callsign of Aspen and offstation of Ginza. We got asked by ATC one day flying as Aspen 11 what our aircraft type was, we replied with KR135 and he just said "Ok, just used to seeing it go faster". Found out later that Aspen was used by the SR-71. I got a chance later to work the Tanker Planning Cell at the CAOC and dealt with making the ATO. Some of our predecessors named the A/R tracks in Iraq after female country music singers. We had to announce when we were entering the track and we used to get a chuckle saying "Python XX entering Shania from the south, Angels 21".

My first AH-1 Cobra Squadron was nick named *Vipers*. When that HMA became and HMLA, the squadron was still known as *Vipers*. Our cross country call sign was Sierra November (SN), fight of 2, 4 AH-1's, and or 2,4 UH-1's, so on and so forth. When our squadron had a Detachment @ Osan AB Korea, our Squadron's nick name was the same nick name as the Air Force F-16's. So we changed our call sign to our tail letters on our Cobra and Huey aircraft. Simple fix overall. It also made the Air Force F-16 bubbas happy, along with the Air Force upper echelon. Keeping peace in our country's military families. Oh boy, Lol.

I was a Navy Air traffic controller at NAS Oceana from 78-80 & 83-87. I was aboard the USS America from 80-83... Definitely may have spoken to you a few times...

One of my favorite Raising Arizona clips!

You missed the VMAQ-2 “The Death Jesters” which back in the day, used to be “The Playboys” out of MCAS Cherry Point. Of course, in our “kinder, gentler” military, they had to change away from the offensive name.

Going to the reunion for VMA-131 today. The Squadron was known as the Diamondbacks but callsigns where Posse and Viper. My father's squadron got A-10s and were the Black Hogs and used Flyer,Ugly,Mad Hog and Sandy. VAQ-209 for the longest used Cobra but switched around 2010 and started using Vader. Few years ago at Oceana heard "Tap Room Three One, single F-18 and two Smart-ass Wingmen".

Nice job on the quick-cut edits Mooch

We use ATO cycles for planning in land warfare as well...mostly at Division and higher level. Knowing what's available on any given ATO cycle can help us plan operations. You'll want to make sure Air Assault operations are tied into SEAD and AI. Having CAS available for support taking an objective is a godsend as well. Its always great nerding out about military aviation during WFX's when we get a JTAC to join us. Also, its awesome you served on the Kennedy...my dad was on that ship from ~71 through 74. They had F-4B's at the time, though.

Good brief Mooch... got an intro to the ATO when doing a variety of exercises including then the largest exercise in the free world in Korea, Team Spirit. Supported Team Spirit out of MCAS Iwakuni Japan and from Teague AB, when MAG-12 deployed to Teague. So got exposure to the ATO, this was 83, 85, 86. One of those Team Spirit exercises was with Marine 1st Track BN, M-60 Tanks and AAV-7 Track vehicles, our TACP detached from 2nd BN 7th Marines, ISO 1st Track BN, got away from the flag poll for a while, which was good. Also got steeped into USAF ATO on an "Opsersize" out of Bahrain July-Aug 98' when the exercise was to provide cover for an actual operation, JTF run by a Navy SWO 2 star. In retrospect it was to take out, I'm convinced now, OBL. That's when he left Saudi and went to Pakistan. The situation room in the White House, Clinton Administration, called off the operation with the Tarawa ARG underway with embarked seals to take him out. ROE was if anyone resisted, shoot em. Again a big lesson and learning curve on the ATO and that process. For Sailors and Marines we were playing catch up ball. The most valuable guy in the CAOC was a USAF E-2, Airman Schmautz, because he knew how to operate the gee whiz computer for input to the ATO. Now the ATO is SOP, everyone on board and yes the Navy got smart and sent the forward leaning and quality guys to the CAOC to look after interests of the ship and the dynamic that brings to the fight. Still miss it after all these years...

Back in the Cold War SAC our callsigns changed everyday for the B-52s and the KC-135s, each Bomb Wing was assigned a separate callsign every 24 hour period, the aircraft tail number was never used but the numbers could from 11 to 29 with the number assigned to a particular aircraft and 6 months later the numbers for the aircraft might change to 31 to 49. Our Command Post being (callsign) Control. Callsigns were always 4 or 5 letters.

Great Raising Arizona call back! Great great movie!

Great video Ward.. The call sign’s are pretty cool, but I personally like squadron motto’s!

What a great video on call signs, etc. I would love to hear what is said when you mess up, because we all know that had to happen once in a while.

I remember Southern Watch ATO's! We got CTAPs, which got the S3s out of mail duty, if I recall correctly. Ordered up Punks Flight and Wing to add to War. I feel complete now :)

As a kid growing up in Boston I had the opportunity to go aboard both the USS America and JFK in the 80’s when they were there for the Tall Ships Event. We had to take a boat out to the JFK as its draft was such it couldn’t dock. I remember talking to guys from VF-41 Tomcatters…awesome experience for a kid.

I found this channel via your video with Rick Beato. Cool patches on that jacket, sir. I am an AF retiree who worked in maintenance. I have a helmet bag that is full of patches that has been with me all over the world. Each patch, like yours, tells a story. I even used it as a gig bag for guitar cables. Its one of must prized possessions.

The Chinook squadron my cousin flew with in Vietnam 68-70 was Playtex. When my uncle was wing co of 366 tfw at Danang in 67, I think one of his callsigns was Pineapple. The wings name was Gunfighter.

VAH2, 60's Folder, VAQ131, 70s' Holly green. Thanks for the memories

Great memories for you Ward.

As Air Operations Supervisor on USS Saratoga sorting through all the suff between myself and the coordinator in CIC was always interesting when it came to all this. Was much easier running Base Ops Flight plans/Charts and Pubs in Brunswick. Thanks for the great content again! Bravo Zulu!

Interesting, Ward! More complex than I would've expected.

VF-114 was the Aardvarks, but our call sign was Linfield. On board the Kitty Hawk with us was VAW-114, the Hormel Hawgs; their call sign was just Hormel. I really enjoy your channel. If I had reenlisted back in 1971, I was going to go to one of the new F14 squadrons. Did you ever think of getting tattoos to match your patches? No? I didn't think so. 🤔😄

As usual, excellent content.

Great thumbnail and font graphics

I recall refueling Buick Flight F-14’s over the gulf using the WARP Pod’s on the KC-10

725 traps. Well done Ward Carroll. PN-3, Ship's Office, USS FOX (DLG-33) 1968-69 Vietnam tour.☮

First day in the power line shop and they called me shaggy. After that everyone called me shaggy. I even put it on my cranial. Even the pilots called me shaggy.

Ward thanks for sharing all of your patches. When you have some time could you tell us about some of the abbreviations that you guys use for us non military folks ? Like, rag and cag and I cant remember some of the other ones you have used.

Interesting info CDR. BTW A.T.O. was an Aircraft Transfer Order to us lowly maintenance people. 😉

Speaking of radio callsigns.... Obviously the Army has them. The best one I ever heard was in 1st BN, 41st FA, 3rd ID. We were known as "Glory's Guns". The battalion callsigns were Glory 6 for the battalion commander. Glory 7 for the Command Sergeant Major, Glory 5 for the battalion executive officer so and so forth. Commanders were "6" and senior enlisted was "7". There is a Chaplain assigned to each unit as per usual. The chaplains callsign changes from battalion to battalion and was determined by the TACSOP. In 1/41FA the chaplains callsign was Glory Hallelujah. Best callsign ever.

The call signs weren’t just to confuse the enemy but also to expose the enemy if they tried to use them as well. Like the call sign “Vaudeville” for example… if used, the phonetics would expose the enemy back in the day it was used. No matter, u would be able to pick up the accent rather easily. This was a contributing factor that went into the official call sign list… naturally not just for squadrons but other participants as well across used nets.

Good stuff Thanks , sir

It's no wonder that genuine aviators can spot phonies in ten seconds. No one else could possibly know this stuff! Another very interesting episode.

VA-12 the flying Ubangis...i wasn't associated but saw their squadron patch that had the motto, "you betcha ubangi" great patch.

On the first night of Desert Storm, the F-111s, executed a silent launch, and headed for Baghdad. I was a civilian ATCer, and worked their recovery to OETF, they used all the NFL team names as call signs. It was a nice touch, they went out that night and scored many goals!

We had VF-143 stopover night in my hometown last January (2020). I can't recall the callsign they used. Looking back on my video I can't make out what they checked in with because my scanner was muffled. In 2019 VF-136 stopped over in Nashville for the night. They did use their normal Gunstar callsign. Fun times when the whole squadron shows up.

Visited family in Norfolk when i was a kid. My uncle took me to work with him. He was an ATC in the Navy and I spent the whole day on the Eisenhower. Epic!!

My Army Chinook unit was the “Schooners.” So calls would come in as Schooner 15 and such.

Wow, thank you! Really interesting info. I guess the confusion over the myriad callsigns wasn't just for the enemies 'benefit!' 👍

Thanks for all of your content, Ward. This one was especially interesting to me due to the fact that the Tomcat on display at the VFW in East Berlin, Pa. (near my home in York, Pa.) has VF-32 markings! Names on the canopy are: Capt. "Irish" Ramey and Capt. "Cookie" Cooke. Wondering if you know/knew these guys? Unfortunately the plane is beginning to look a bit second hand as it's been sitting out in the weather for many years. I still like to go visit it on nice days, though. Thanks again, Ray.

Ward Could you sometime go through the different acronyms used by Naval Aviators Example: VF, CAG, Nugget and other phrases you frequently use. As a blue water sailor we certainly had our own and on my submarine many distinctly to that boat. Thanks 616 Blue

Can we give Ward some love for that incredible redundant unit name montage

Great Episode! The hair metal call signs are great! Ex. Ratt, Scorpion, Dokken......

Sounds different from my experience, starting in 07. From my first Nav training flight, we were GATOR XX. The Gators (naviGATORs) were T-43s out of Randolph AFB. Our ramp was "The Swamp." The numbers were assigned to pilots, and one was a UF alum with #08. He told us to call "Gatorade" instead of "GATOR zero eight," which pissed off instructors. Later, in the 317th Airlift Group, we were HAZARD XX. My first TDY to drop the jump school at Ft Benning was aboard HAZARD 69, which I'm still pretty proud of. Those callsigns did not follow us to combat. C-130s in Iraq or Afghanistan had different tactical callsigns, but they didn't change during the mission. We only had one, sourced from the ATO from the start of the day till we got home at the end.

When I was ships company on the Roosevelt (CVN-71) I collected cockpit art. Basically the hand painted artwork below the canopy that would have the pilot's rank, first name, call sign, last name. So it would be something like Lt. Joe "Buggsy" Cooper. And then the plane captain would have their name and the back seater or in the case of the Prowler, all four crew. I got all the planes from all the squadrons that were embarked. The Tomcat squadrons were the Jolly Rogers and Black Aces and the squadron CO's had the coolest paint jobs of all. I believe the CO's had the number 100 on the nose. Or 101? Can't remember. But I look back on those pictures with great fondness.

Very interesting. Always wondered why Scott O'Grady's call sign was "Basher". I've always known that mission call signs differed from a unit's nicknames, etc. but I never understood the nuts and bolts of it. Thanks!

thanks for the insight on Atkron 46.....i always thought it was known as Tartan

VA-22, the Fighting Redcocks' tactical was Beefeater (YCBAR). Not sure if VFA-22 changed it. Hope not, though one could perhaps think that through a bit too much.. On another note, the call sign of our MO at my last squadron (prior to my retirement) was "Lick". His last name was Mawhinny - clever, indeed.

On the 12th day of christmas my true love gave to me: 12 howling wolves 11 voodoo dolls 10 tiny tigers 9 snakes a-slithering 8 panthers panting 7 slammers slamming 6 cutting razors FIVE. GOLDEN. TACOS! 4 roguish rogues 3 bald eagles 2 screw birds and a bare ace that had been sanitized!