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OpticaLLightspeed In reply to AnalyzerCro [2010-01-15 12:36:01 +0000 UTC]

Thank you.

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OpticaLLightspeed In reply to RoadTripDog [2010-01-15 13:10:26 +0000 UTC]

Here you go:

VF-143 Squadron History by James C.Kao

VF-143 Squadron Insignia Courtesy of Darryl Shaw
VF-143 Pukin Dogs
Base: NAS Oceana
Tailcode: 'AG'
Callsign: 'Dog'
Variant:: F-14B

The VF-143 started out its life as VF-871, a reserve F-4U-4 Corsair squadron at NAS Alameda in 1949. It was called into action twice during the Korean War, flying off aircraft carriers USS Princeton and USS Essex. The squadron was redesignated VF-123 and received F9F-2 Panthers in 1953. In 1958 it transitioned to the F3H Demon and was again redesignated VF-53. It was around this time the squadron adopted its current insignia--a winged black lion (or as squadron lore has it, the design is actually a mythological creature called Griffin) on a blue shield.

There are two tales on how the distinctive squadron name came about: One popular version is that when the Griffin design was unveiled, a female observer commented that the creature's droopy head and gaping mouth made it looked like a dog throwing up. A few claimed the nickname originated in Vietnam when a USAF F-105 pilot remarked on how the beast resembled a vomitting canine! Either way, the legend of the World Famous Pukin' Dogs had begun.

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RoadTripDog In reply to OpticaLLightspeed [2010-01-15 21:33:59 +0000 UTC]

I thought there had to be a good story behind the name! I had heard of the Grim Reapers and Tophatters and some others but had not heard of Pukin' Dogs.

I was a young lad when Sabres and Super Sabres and the centuries were proving our air superiority. I built many a Revell model of them along with my WWII Corsair and Focke-Wulf 190 and various Navy ship models. My favorite boat model was CV-59, USS Forrestal. I didn't glue my little planes to the deck like so many others did, I kept them loose so I could arrange and re-arrange them on the deck. It was kind of a pain to move it around that way, and a couple planes got accidently lost to mom's vacuum cleaner one day. Oh well, that's the price to be paid for being creative! Many years later I got a tour of CVN-72 Abe Lincoln and one of the stops on the tour was where they arranged parking on the deck - it looked a lot like how I had done it years before on my plastic CV-59! I volunteered to the XO on the spot for the job. Here I was, volunteering to be pressed into the Navy like the English used to do in days of old, but I was too old and he turned me down. Damn. I might have been the best deck parking arranger they ever had! Maybe I should have claimed age discrimination . . .

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OpticaLLightspeed In reply to RoadTripDog [2010-01-18 14:42:05 +0000 UTC]

Nothing like being a "Yellow Shirt".

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RoadTripDog In reply to OpticaLLightspeed [2010-01-19 06:14:50 +0000 UTC]

And you know, I would have put on the Yellow Shirt and taken the job! Of course, my wife and children would have wondered what happened to me, and probably would have had quite a shock when I sent them my first pay allowance!

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