VF-11 Red Rippers F-14 Tail Flash, Mahogany For Sale

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VF-11 Red Rippers F-14 Tail Flash, Mahogany:
$227.00

VF-11 Red Rippers F-14 Tail Flash, Mahogany

Fly with the VF-11 Red Rippers with this hand-crafted F-14a Tail. Each tail is carved from wood and hand-painted to provide a unique, treasured piece.

15.5"x12" inches
Made from Mahogany
US Naval Aviator Owned Business

Last Days of VF-11 Red Rippers. By US Navy via Gerry Clarke Public Domain

Strike Fighter Squadron 11 (VFA-11) is a United States Navy strike fighter squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, United States. The squadron was established in 1950 and is nicknamed "Red Rippers" (call sign "Ripper"). VFA-11 is equipped with the Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet and currently assigned to Carrier Air Wing One.

Insignia and nickname
The Red Ripper squadron insignia as described by an early member: "The boar's head is taken from the one that graces the label of the Gordon's Gin bottle. The scroll effect under the head is a string of link sausage, a good line of bologna which all members of the squadron were to be adept at ‘shooting.' The balls on the shield might be called balls of fire; actually, they were supposed to typify good, strong masculinity. The bolt of lightning was the bar sinister of bastardy. The whole theme was worked into a sort of toast or creed with which the squadron members were to begin and end all good drinking bouts. The official Ripper toast is, ‘Here's to us, the RED RIPPERS - a damn bunch of gin drinking, bologna slinging, two-balled, he-man bastards'." In 2011, while on liberty in Bahrain, high ranking authorities declared the toast inappropriate and offensive; the toast was banned shortly thereafter. Slowly since, the toast has returned in more informal settings.