Idaho’s Tigers & Thunderbolts blast the skies over Florida!

Idaho’s Thunderbolts and Bold Tigers routinely take part in Checkered Flag training over Florida: “They’re able to put together a bigger airspace for us than is available in the Nellis Test and Training Range, which means you can bring together more effectively much larger numbers of aircraft.”-Lieutenant Colonel Mark Nyberg, 389th Fighter Squadron ‘Thunderbolts’, November 2017

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Tiffany Price.

Checkered Flag is a wargame meant to ensure that U.S. Air Force and various state Air National Guard units can work together using the latest aircraft technology.

U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Tiffany Price, 06NOV2020.

In the above photo, from Checkered Flag 21-1 (November 2020), an Idaho Thunderbolts F-15E is in the background, a California National Guard F-15C is in the foreground.

Video by Senior Airman Jacob Dastas, Idaho Thunderbolts at Checkered Flag 21-1:

Idaho’s Thunderbolts and Bold Tigers represent two different squadrons within the same wing based at Mountain Home Air Force Base (366th Fighter Wing, aka Gunfighters due to strapping 20mm Vulcan gun-pods to the bellies of their F-4Cs in Viet Nam).

USAF photo by Airman First Class Isaiah J. Soliz, 06NOV2017.

Thunderbolts at Checkered Flag 18-1, November 2017.

USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Javier Cruz, 16DEC2016.

The 391st Fighter Squadron (Bold Tigers) uses a tiger striped orange fin flash, while the 389th Fighter Squadron (originally flying P-47D Thunderbolts in World War Two) uses a maroon/red fin flash with a yellow lightning bolt.