Many of the Air Force units have mottos and emblems that hide curious stories, exemplify their values or are a reflection of their missions.
The Spanish Air Force is structured into Headquarters, the Air Force Force and Force Support. The Air Force is in turn structured into Air Commands, which manage Wings, Force Groups, Air Groups and Squadrons, as well as other infrastructures such as Bases, Airfields, Barracks, Barracks, etc.
Many of the Air Force units have mottos and emblems that hide curious stories, exemplify the values of the Air Force or are a reflection of its missions.
"Vista, suerte y al toro" (Sight, luck and the bull) is the motto of the Wing 11located in Morón de la Frontera, Seville. Its emblem shows three birds, a falcon, a bustard and a blackbird. Anyone who knows anything about ornithology would be surprised by this selection, a bird of prey, a steppe bird and a "city" bird in the same painting. Well, these birds represent the Blue Squadron or Patrol of García Morato, one of the best pilots of the rebel air force during the Spanish Civil War. García Morato was posthumously named Count of Jarama in memory of the Battle of Jarama where the Blue Patrol fought against 30 Republican fighters on the back of fighter planes. Fiat CR.32 Italians.
During the Cold War, Spain reached a series of agreements with the United States, which led to the construction in 1953 of the now defunct San Pablo Air Base in Seville, where today the C-295 and A-400M military transport aircraft are assembled. It was there and at the Morón Air Base that the US Strategic Air Command was installed, whose motto is "Our mission is Peace".a slogan that, in the form of a poster, adorned the entrance to the Morón Base in the 1960s and 1970s. Peacekeeping is, today, one of the main missions of the 11th Wing.
"Don't look for three feet..." and whose emblem depicts the face of a black cat, is the motto of the Wing 12located in Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid. For its part, the Wing 14 located at the Base de los Llanos in Albacete, it lacks a motto, but it does not need one, as its emblem is the ingenious nobleman Don Quixote of La Mancha accompanied by three Dassault Mirage F1 fighters. The motto of the Wing 15located in Zaragoza, Spain, is "Whoever dares pays".Its emblem is adorned with a majestic tiger. The 23rd Wing created as the Reactor School has a curious motto, "The quality of the aircraft matters very little. The success of the mission depends on the pilot who operates it".. Curiosities of fate, the Talavera la Real (Badajoz) air base where it is located is today the home of the "unmanned" MQ-9 PREDATOR B systems. Its emblem sports a striking green parrot that I have not been able to find out what it refers to..... The nickname of the pilots of 231 Squadron which forms part of the Wing is "black legs", which is normal, being in Extremadura, although their emblem is not adorned with a ham, but with the black talons of an eagle.
The main mission of the Wing 31 is air transport, and as such, its motto reads as follows "Whatever, wherever, whenever".. Currently the 31st Wing, based in Zaragoza, has eleven A-400Ms, successors to the C-130 Hercules, familiarly known as Dumbos. The two squadrons of the 311th and 312th Wing have elephants on their emblems. The 35th Wing, located in Getafe, operates the A-400M's smaller siblings, the C-295, was the first unit to acquire the Special Air Operations role, and conducts both strategic (inter-theatre) and tactical (intra-theatre) transport operations. From Wing 37 two squadrons are part of it; the 371st, whose motto is "Wherever and however they are".The 422, whose emblem includes a Caribou, like the ones pulling Santa Claus' sleigh, and the 422nd, whose motto reads "Weirder than..." and whose emblem shows a green dog, a pug like the one in Scooby Doo. The Wing 48located in Getafe, operates the CN-235, and the Super Puma and Cougar helicopters, its motto is ".Unde veniat" ("Where it comes from"), its emblem shows a lion. The 803 squadron, belonging to this wing, is dedicated to search and rescue operations, maritime surveillance and aero-medical evacuation, while the 402 squadron's mission is to transport VIPs: Royal Household, Presidency, etc. The Wing 49located in Palma de Mallorca, operates the same aircraft as the 48th Wing, to which belong the Balearic Rescue Coordination Centre and the 801 Squadron, whose motto is "...".Vade et tu fac similiter" ("Go and do the same".), in reference to the parable of the Good Samaritan. This wing is also specialised in search and rescue and maritime rescue operations.
The Wing 78with its slogan "What you learn well". is the Air Force Helicopter School and is located in Armilla, Granada. It has Sikorsky helicopters and Airbus Helicopters EC-120 Colibri. Its emblem shows a pomegranate fruit and a paper plane, symbolising the fragility of flight and the study necessary for it.
Other striking slogans include "Turn it off...and let's go", from 43 Air Forces Groupwhich appears together with a Canadair CL-215 in the shape of a seal, over the sea where it usually carries out the water loadings to extinguish fires. This Group has several other slogans such as "Where I put my eye, eye!", "I was in hell... and I turned it off", "I was in hell... and I turned it off"., o "When a mountain burns down...". Operationally dependent on the Military Emergency Unit, it is the group in charge of extinguishing forest fires in Spain.
The 47 Mixed Grouprecently renamed the Aerospace Targeting and Intelligence Centre, its emblem features a bat clutching two rays on a globe, on the left a sun, and on the right the constellation of the raven, representing the 471st and 472nd squadrons respectively, which have the radio call sign of 'sorcerer'. It is a centre specialising in electronic warfare, reconnaissance, tactical intelligence, in-flight refuelling and radio aid calibration. Its motto is "Mobilis in mobile" o "Mobile on the moveThe Air Force's ability to move is a reflection of the Air Force's capacity for movement.
The motto of the Las Bárdenas Reales Shooting Rangein Tudela (Navarra), en Was it inside...? Its main mission is to train Air Force combat pilots in air-to-ground firing. It is worth mentioning that its grounds are located in the heart of a natural park and Biosphere Reserve.
The Logistic Centre for Armament and Experimentation (CLAEX) which was once the 54th Wing, is made up of three groups, the Armament Group, the Flight Test Group and the Aeronautical Software Group. Its mission is the experimentation, homologation and reception of aircraft, equipment and aerial armament, research, integration, maintenance, cataloguing, storage and distribution of Air Force armament and ammunition, and the design, maintenance, modification, development, validation and verification of the on-board software of the Air Force's weapons systems. Its motto "Oderint dum metuant", "Let them hate us so long as they fear us". Its emblem features a Eurofighter Typhoon, a missile and a gyroscope.
The General Air Academy belongs to the Eagle PatrolThe well-known aerobatic patrol of the Spanish Air Force, which flies the CASA C-101 "Mirlo", known as culopollo, and whose motto is "Juncti sed non uncti"., "Together but not mixed"..
To end this entry, a motto that represents the spirit of the Air Force, that of EZAPAC, the Parachute Sapper Squadron, "Only those who are willing to die for a noble ideal deserve to live"..
