Deploying with Eglin AFB?s 40th Tactical Fighter Squadron, first internal gun equipped F-4E squadron to Southeast Asia, the artist is seen here as Major Paul Leming's GIB (Guy In Back) in tail number 268 as part of the first cell of eight Phantoms in company with their assigned three KC-135A tankers on 17 November 1968. The painting depicts the feeling of hanging out there in the sun, hour after hour, over the vast Pacific and of the relentless march into the unknown as these men faced their first combat tour. On arrival at Korat, Thailand, the F-4Es and their crews were welcomed as the previously F-105 equipped 469th Tactical Fighter Squadron. The deploying F-4E crews flew and fought together for a year from Korat, mainly over Laos, losing two aircraft and four aircrew members in combat. They continued the 469th TFS tradition of being ?Bad News for Uncle Ho?.
