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U.S. Air Force F-4 Fighter Squadron Deploys to Thailand

April 26, 1965

45th Fighter Squadron emblem
45th Fighter Squadron emblem
45th Fighter Squadron emblem

The U.S. Air Force 45th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) deploys to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. The squadron is equipped with the first Air Force F-4 Phantom II jets in Southeast Asia. On July 10 the 45th TFS records the Air Force’s first aerial victories in Southeast Asia when two F-4 aircrews shoot down two North Vietnamese MiG-17 jet fighters.1

1Jacob Van Staaveren, Gradual Failure: The Air War Over North Vietnam, 1965–1966 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2002), 117–118; Frederick J. Shaw and Timothy Warnock, The Cold War and Beyond: Chronology of the United States Air Force, 1947–1997 (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997), 38–39; Peter Davies, F-4 Phantom II vs Mig-21: USAF and VPAF in the Vietnam War (New York: Osprey Publishing, 2008), 11–12; Enzo Angelucci, The American Combat Aircraft and Helicopters of the Vietnam War (New York: Portland House, 1987), 42; John C. Fredriksen, The United States Air Force: A Chronology (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 235.