St. Louis Slugger
No matter what you call it: The Double Ugly, Lead Sled, Flying Anvil, Flying Brick, Snoopy, Rhino, Old Smokey, the triumph of thrust over aerodynamics, et. al, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom is a beautiful aircraft that looks fast even while sitting in a boneyard.
Speaking of which, check out this sweet 1980s Cold War image from the Museum of Missouri Military History showing this “Lindbergh’s Own” F-4E-44-MC Phantom 69-7267, complete with an “SL” St. Louis tail code for Lambert Field and a red Missouri ANG tail flash. This is appropriate as over 5,000 Phantoms were built (for 16 countries) at MDD’s St. Louis factory and another nickname for the bird was the “St. Louis Slugger.”
McDonnell Douglas plant in St Louis, with F4s and F15s running side by side in the late 1970s
A 1969 model, Baugher lists the above aircraft as being used by the Air Force’s 469th TFS (388th TFW)– which flew Fast FAC duty in Southeast Asia at the time– then the 34th TFS (also based at Korat through 1975) and the 35th TFW while on active duty for 27 years then in service with the Missouri ANG’s 110th TFS in 1986– dating the above image.
By 1987, she was with the California ANG’s 196th TFS, then served with the Indiana ANG’s 163rd TFS. Upgraded to F-4G standard in 1990, she then went back to “Big Blue,” serving another six years with the 81st TFS (52nd TFW) and later the 561st TFS (57th FWW) at Nellis AFB. Sent to the boneyard at AMARC as FP1015 in early 1996, she was sent to Tracor to be converted to a QF-4G drone, #AF132, flying out of Holloman AFB from 1997 until she was expended in a missile test on 27 July 2002, capping 33 years of service in one form or another.
As for the 110th TFS, since 2008 they have been the 110th Bomb Squadron (110 BS) at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, and operate the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.