{"id":49951,"date":"2023-01-03T18:55:18","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T17:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=49951"},"modified":"2024-01-03T01:47:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T00:47:14","slug":"the-curious-image-of-a-usaf-f-15c-eagle-fighter-with-the-white-eagle-of-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/01\/03\/the-curious-image-of-a-usaf-f-15c-eagle-fighter-with-the-white-eagle-of-poland\/","title":{"rendered":"The curious image of a USAF F-15C Eagle fighter with the White Eagle of Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) is in the process of retiring its F-15C and F-15D Eagle fighters, being replaced by F-35As.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2019\/08\/17\/two-of-the-best-mountains-in-the-world-to-see-war-planes-flying-at-high-speed\/\">Two of the best mountains in the world to see war planes flying at high speed<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/12\/22\/six-impressive-quick-climbs-of-raf-f-35a-lightning-ii-fighters\/\">Six impressive quick climbs of USAF F-35A Lightning II fighters<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>One of the units that has undergone this substitution process in recent months is <strong>the 493rd Fighter Squadron (493rd FS), nicknamed the \"Grim Reapers\"<\/strong>. This unit has been stationed at the British base at <strong>RAF Lakenheath<\/strong> since 1960, when it was equipped with F-100 fighters. In 1971 it received the F-4D Phantom II and, after a brief service of only six years, <strong>in 1977 the 493rd FS received the F-111F Aadvark, which were replaced in 1993 by F-15C and F-15D Eagle fighters. .<\/strong> In 2022, the integration of the new F-35As was completed.<\/p>\n<p>British photographer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ElwynR\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elwyn Roberts<\/a> <strong>published a few days ago the farewell flight of the F-15s of the 493rd FS<\/strong> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2019\/08\/17\/two-of-the-best-mountains-in-the-world-for- -see-war-planes-flying-at-high-speed\/\">the Mach Loop in Wales<\/a>, one of the best places in the world to see low-flying fighter planes:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mach Loop 2022 Highlights!! USAF F-15Eagle V F35Lightning Low Level through the Mountains of Wales\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_D-tJnO_4uA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the video, Elwyn includes this <strong>excellent photo of an F-15C of the 493rd FS<\/strong> on its farewell flight, carrying a Welsh flag on the front of the cockpit.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52604947814_c2367b3055_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I expand a detail of the photo that has caught my attention:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52605120775_8b06821f00_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That eagle looks very familiar to me, since I have one just like it hanging in the room where I am writing these lines. <strong>It is the \"Orze\u0142 Bia\u0142y\", the White Eagle of the national coat of arms of Poland.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4597\/27403867689_f2b5ce8f4f_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>And what is an American fighter in the UK doing with a Polish eagle?<\/strong> I've been searching for information and found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/the-war-zone\/44245\/fully-armed-grim-reaper-f-15-eagles-deploy-to-poland-in-response-to-russian-military-build-up\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">la The 493rd FS's last F-15 mission with NATO was a deployment to \u0141ask Air Base in Poland<\/a>. That squadron <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DGeneralneRSZ\/status\/1491777848801214466\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deployed eight F-15C and D fighters on February 10<\/a>, only 13 days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ebay.com\/itm\/284860085198?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">You can see the commemorative patch for that mission here<\/ a>, which is the one that appears painted on the nose of that F-15C. A nice nod to Poland.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/52605120810_830b7e6331_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; margin:10px 0 10px 0;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The patch references the name of this mission in Poland, Atlas Guardian 22<\/strong>, and includes the text \"Reapers in Poland\", which refers to that squadron's USAF nickname.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) is in the process of retiring its F-15C and F-15D Eagle fighters, being replaced by F-35As.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11546],"tags":[13206,18183,6262,10370,18131,10678,6761,1110,16792],"class_list":["post-49951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-aviation","tag-493rd-fighter-squadron","tag-atlas-guardian-22","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-f-15-eagle","tag-poland","tag-raf-lakenheath","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf","tag-usafe","tag-wales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}