All Dagger IPs wore the Dagger flight patch on the left sleeve of their flight suits. As students, we also wore this patch when we were assigned to Dagger.
All Eagle IPs wore the Eagle flight patch on the left sleeve of their flight suits. As students, we also wore this patch when we were assigned to Eagle.
At the time of my story, Columbus Air Force Base was part of Air Training Command.
This is the scarf I wore with my flight suit as a student in 88-07.
This is the squadron patch worn by our T-38 instructors. The informal nickname of the 50th Flying Training Squadron was the Spitting Snakes.
The class ahead of ours, UPT Class 88-06, was known as the Cool Cats. Like us, the Cool Cats were a double-sized class made up of mostly our classmates from the Air Force Academy.
T-37 instructor pilots assigned to the 37th Flying Training Squadron, like Dagger IPs, wore this patch on their right sleeves.
UPT academic instructors at Columbus wore this patch on their left sleeves.
Both our T-37 and T-38 class commanders wore this patch.
This was the patch worn by T-37 Check Section pilots.
Skeletor and his T-38 Check Section buddies wore this patch on their left sleeves.
Flying an instrument procedure from altitude to a runway approach is called a penetration. Obviously, this patch has no X-rated hidden meaning.
"Citizens of Columbus, hide your daughters."
Some of the class patches on the walls of the 14th Student Squadron had more subtle hidden meanings than others.
The Columbus-Starkville-West Point region of Mississippi is known as the Golden Triangle. What else could this patch mean?
The shaker is the taker.
Doley rented a house with two guys from UPT Class 88-04. The reason the patch says, “We’ve L’got to wear shades,” is because the class had them printed in the Philippines, and the seamstresses there didn’t know enough English to understand the mistake.
Even though this class was known as the Orange Pumpkins, they had no pumpkins on their class patch - just orange.
While still training in the T-37, the Night Mares class painted the roof of the T-38 VFR entry point with yellow and black paint. The day our class learned of this, we painted the mother pink.
