# Can someone ID these squadron markings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 20, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-id-these-squadron-markings/381098 "2006-11-20T03:25:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-id-these-squadron-markings/381098/1 "2006-11-20T03:25:12Z")
This just barely qualifies as a GQ. Just. Anyway, I was watching an old music video the other day (for Pearl Jam’s “Do the Evolution”), which briefly features a pair of jets making a napalm drop. They’re obviously based on A-4s, with some technical differences. (Such as a different wing design, and _ahem_ helicopter rotors.) Now, what I was wondering is: are the paint jobs on the aircraft based on any real squadron markings? Here’s a screencap: [Mystery markings.](http://home.comcast.net/~Ranchoth/mysterysquadrn.jpg) Now, there’s a red circle on the side of the fuselage (suggestive of the Japanese “meatball”), and a blueish shape on the tail, with a yellow “J” beneath. It’s a long shot that it’s based on anything real, I know. But I just thought I’d check. Anyone have any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-id-these-squadron-markings/381098/2 "2006-11-20T04:23:57Z")
There is an emblem or decal or shoulder patch of some sort that is a red circle, (perhaps a drum top?) with a pair of crossed tomahawks or war clubs (or peace pipes?) that I have seen. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find it in a search. I am not even sure that the emblem I’ve seen was a Navy or Marine emblem and my hazy memory actually associates it with either the Army or a police force. To me, the red circles on the engine fairings of your painting appear to have the same sort of crossed devices in a dark color near the top of the circle. ---
**Author:** ![St\_Ides](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@St\_Ides](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St_Ides)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-id-these-squadron-markings/381098/3 "2006-11-20T04:34:30Z")
The red disc is certainly Japanese. And I don’t seem to recall any other airforces that use a purely red disc as part of their markings. Of course, at no point did the Japan Air Self Defence force use A-4s. Looking through [some pictures](http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?airlinesearch=Japan%20-%20Air%20Force&distinct_entry=true) of both new and old JASDF aircraft, I don’t see any markings similar to the ones in the picture you linked. My opinion is that it’s a composite of a bunch of different sources, put together just to look cool. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-id-these-squadron-markings/381098/4 "2006-11-20T06:56:34Z")
Well, I have figured out what it was that jogged my memory, although I have still not discoverd a link to an image. This [Indian shield](http://hem.passagen.se/charlotw/OLC_shield.gif) from the logo for Oglala Lakota College is close. The shield (not drum) that I remember had the tomahawk/pipes higher on the shield with no other markings, crossing a t broader angle so that the handles were closer to the rim of the shield. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-id-these-squadron-markings/381098/5 "2006-11-20T11:38:25Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] I am not even sure that the emblem I’ve seen was a Navy or Marine emblem and my hazy memory actually associates it with either the Army or a police force. [/QUOTE] **tomndebb** , [this site](http://webpages.charter.net/usaihp/armyhome.html) is just an amazing assortment of insignia from pretty much all of the branches in most of the wars we’ve fought. Could you have seen a shoulder patch from the 84th ID? Tripler But that squadron marking in the OP? I’d chalk it up to imaginative Japanimation–not a real squadron.