In the summer of 1985 our squadron deployed to Zaragoza AB, Spain, for a month for training, where I painted my third and final 480th TFS ‘Great Warhawk Nation’ squadron patch in this series in the deployed squadron WTD Operations Building. I’ve included photos of my completed patch, which was about three feet across, as well as photos of the Life Support and WTD Operations Buildings, where deployed squadrons left their ‘zaps’ or stickers behind on the doors as calling cards. Mine was the first squadron patch to be painted in the Ops Building – above a pass-through area into a small lounge – but it started a tradition with many of the visiting squadrons deciding to paint their patches in the building as well:
480th TFS Squadron Patch #3 (Summer 1985)
(Original Painting by Mark D. Jones)
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- 480th TFS Squadron Patch #3 by Mark D. Jones (Summer 1985)
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- 480th TFS Squadron Patch #3 by Mark D. Jones (Summer 1985)
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- Zaragoza AB, Spain, Life Support Building (Summer 1985)
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- Zaragoza AB, Spain, Deployed WTD Ops Building (Summer 1985)
Organizational Aerodynamics 
I love it. I was stationed in Spangdahlem AB, Germany, from spring 1990 – July 1992. I was assigned to the 52CES.
I’m trying to see if I can find pictures of a miniature “F-16 Block 100” (actually, it was a lawnmower that a few of us guys took the body off of & replaced it with a hand-built, not-to-scale,s metal F-16 body), to be used in static Air Shows, Parades, etc..; as I’d like to have some pictures of it, and to know if it still exists.
Robert,
Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, we had a mini-F-4 that was driven around on special occasions during the early and mid-1980s, that was probably morphed into an F-16 when the Warhawks converted. I found some video links from the ‘old days’ in the Warhawks during my time from 1983-1987 – I PCSd when the first F-16s began arriving on-base. The first YouTube video is of our mini-F-4 set to the Ghostbusters song track, the 2nd is of Santa arriving in an F-4 at Christmas, and the 3rd is of Phantoms being awesome as always! Just Google 480th Warhawks and scroll through to find a number of videos from back in the day. I don’t have any photos of the mini-F-16, sorry. Cheers, Mark (Video links below)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlZmXuXlL5o
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU7hmDfXk7I
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f6oG53ICxc