RF-AK Scramble

VMA-223 "Bulldogs" · USMC · 2023

Marine Attack Squadron 223 — the "Bulldogs" of MCAS Cherry Point, commissioned in 1942 and the Corps' last squadron to fly the AV-8B Harrier II — carried this cartoon brawl north for RED FLAG-Alaska, the Pacific Air Forces large-force exercise flown out of Eielson AFB over the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex. Worn by SSgt Sally during the Alaskan Red Flag exercise, the patch reduces two weeks of coalition air combat to a boxing match: the squadron's scowling bulldog, winged and flying the red flag, squares off in the ring while "RF-AK" and "Scramble" ring the border. Harriers and their maintainers spent the detachment integrating with Air Force, Navy and allied aircrews against the aggressors — a long way from the Cherry Point flight line, and among the type's last big overseas-style workups before the Harrier's 2026 sundown.