In 1964, the fighter-bomber squadron G31 “Boelke”, as the sibling formation of the air force’s G36, presented its latest airplane type, the F-104G “Starfighter”, at Hopsten air base in Münsterland, in northwest-Germany. It was the much-anticipated replacement for the totally obsolete F-84 “Thunderstreaks”. From 1968 on, a four-digit code, split by the stylistically modified cross of old provenance, was implemented. In the case of this model’s original it was 22+09. 52 machines were deployed at G31/36 until it was placed under NATO control in 1967. For ten years, the “manned rocket” remained in G31 operation. It, too, lost nine machines with six pilot fatalities due to the totally overburdened role the F-104 was forced to play. Our original is displayed in the gray-green combat livery, equipped with additional tanks at the wing ends which would even have qualified the jet, capable of reaching mach 2.2, for nuclear operations, under US command, into the potential combat zones in the GDR, Poland or the CSSR.
