301st TFS Phantom II

301st Tactical Fighter Squadron (301 Hikotai), JASDF — the "Frogs" · Allied · 2013

This subdued shoulder patch was worn by a Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter pilot of the 301st Tactical Fighter Squadron — an F-4 Phantom II silhouette crossing a hinomaru sun, with the gold Roman numeral II marking the type the squadron flew from the day it stood up. Formed at Hyakuri Air Base on 16 October 1973 as the JASDF's first F-4EJ unit and its Phantom conversion school, the 301st moved to Nyutabaru in 1985 and was flying the upgraded F-4EJ Kai from Kyushu in 2013, when this patch was swapped to a US Marine during a US/Japan WestPac training exercise. The squadron outlasted every other Phantom unit in Japanese service: it flew the last JASDF F-4EJ Kai sorties in December 2020 before relocating to Misawa and re-equipping with the F-35A Lightning II, closing out nearly half a century of Samurai Phantoms.