Military
The F-4C Phantom II entered the Air Force inventory in 1963 and continued to be produced through 1979. Phantoms were used at Eielson for alert duty between 1970 and 1982. The 43 Tactical Fighter Squadron and the 18 Fighter Squadron from Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska, provided the planes and maintained a detachment of personnel at Eielson's Combat Alert Facility, where the Phantoms took off on short-notice air intercept missions. The Phantom was the first multi-service aircraft, flying concurrently with the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. It is the first and only aircraft to be flown concurrently by both the Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds. It was also flown by the defense forces of 11 other nations: Australia, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iran, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Turkey. In its role as an air-to-air platform, the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps used the airframe to achieve 277 aerial combat victories in Vietnam. The F-4 could also hold more than twice the normal bomb load of the World War II-era B-17.
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Eielson AFB, Alaska · United States
