Kadena chicken story

Can anyone give me a good link that gives me the "official" story about why Kadena is known as the chickens. I heard the maintainers where ditched by the pilots and hung with safety wire, i don't really believe the safety wire part of the story, but yeah, can you find me the real story, not just what is heard through the grape vine. Thanks!

The story isn't true. It's urban legend but one that people will swear to the death it's true. I did some research on the story and also looked at the casualty lists which also showed the same thing. But this story dies hard. I've known Chiefs that believed it to the core and even wanted to fight over it. The story floats around the Korean bases and is told as the SP's being the ones strung up. This is a "square needle in the left nut" story that was told in the club to newbies. A look at the squadron histories also show that the story doesn't match.

fightin cock and proud of it

BTW - the 67th has been called "The Fighting Cocks" and had that unit emblem since the 1940's when Walt Disney artists drew it up for them. That in itself debunks the story. But it is interesting how this story has a life of its' own and how many people believe in it.

Wow, i amazed how pissed people get when i told them the story wasn't true, it was like i just had sexual relations with there sister. I guess it's like santa claus, i didn't want to believe it either.

Yeah. I believed it too and even used to pass it on to my students at tech school. It is a great story but it sadly does defame the reputation of a unit that didn't do anything to deserve it.

okay, so i finally found some proof on the Kadena web site. https://www.kadena.af.mil/18wg/WingStaff/18wgho/faq.htm

It tells you about all the rumors and tells you the truth and history of the patch and tail letters, some of my fellow co-workers still don't believe me. I'm going insane!!! They claim it's a cover up by the government, yet the government makes the unit wear a chicken patch so that they stick out in shame, I don't think so!!!

Seems bad for morale to punish a whole unit for something other people supposedly did 50 years ago. Government coverup. That always cracks me up. If you've worked for/with the government long enough you realize that most of the supposed cover-ups are one of the following:

1. Incompetent workers who don't know what they are doing
2. Workers who don't care to get you the right answer because it's too much work so they make something up
3. Workers who are a part of a huge beauracracy and have no idea where to go to get the right answer
4. A new guy who was never trained
5. Someone who was hired to do a job they are not even remotely qualified to do
6. In the mass of moves and paperless offices the files really did get lost
7. A loser who gets drunk and makes something up in a bar to impress his friends or a female
8. Entry level workers who will never rise above GS-1 becuase they aren't metally capable to rise any higher and so they blame their own failures on a great government conspiracy

Are there coverups? Yep. But of all of those rumors probably less than 1% are true. Hey - there's a group out there that thinks that all US military bases are connected by tunnels. They are there so the aliens (the little green kind) can travel between bases undetected by the general public.

Wish I could find those people - I'd get rich selling them Pseudo Gold Plated Electric Dog Polishers.....

That link above is down. Ive never heard this story before, can someone please explain it?

-Aaron

TenguNoHi wrote:That link above is down. Ive never heard this story before, can someone please explain it?

-Aaron

I'm pretty sure that Kadena restricts their website to .mil users.

Straight from the link...

"A popular rumor claims the wing patch has a chicken and is yellow because of an alleged act of cowardice during the Korean War. The fact that the patch has been worn since 1932 certainly disproves this rumor and should dispel any doubts about the record of the 18th Wing. The wing patch has undergone some changes since it first appeared in 1931. However, the "fight until you prevail" attitude is as strong today as it was over 60 years ago."

Legend has it that Kadena AB was getting taken over and the pilots left the crew chiefs, the crew chiefs were then hung with safety wire, my fellow co workers tell me the safety wire is still hanging from the ceilings in the hangars. I don't find it likely for the base to keep safety wire up on the hangar that a body was hanging from. Then people claim that the safety wire is hanging in Osan, what does that have to do with Kadena? Why do people believe this story?

bealio wrote:Straight from the link...

"A popular rumor claims the wing patch has a chicken and is yellow because of an alleged act of cowardice during the Korean War. The fact that the patch has been worn since 1932 certainly disproves this rumor and should dispel any doubts about the record of the 18th Wing. The wing patch has undergone some changes since it first appeared in 1931. However, the "fight until you prevail" attitude is as strong today as it was over 60 years ago."

Legend has it that Kadena AB was getting taken over and the pilots left the crew chiefs, the crew chiefs were then hung with safety wire, my fellow co workers tell me the safety wire is still hanging from the ceilings in the hangars. I don't find it likely for the base to keep safety wire up on the hangar that a body was hanging from. Then people claim that the safety wire is hanging in Osan, what does that have to do with Kadena? Why do people believe this story?

The incident supposedly happened when the unit was stationed in Korea during the war - not Kadena.

So what about the "The wing is forbidden to return to the CONUS". Story/urbanlegend/rumor/fact??

Very enlightening.. all these years I thought "ZZ" meant "Asleep at the Switch".

I've heard this story as well. Many people (the ones who weren't stationed at Kadena, mind you) call the 18th Wing "The Surrendering Chickens". It fits perfectly...a YELLOW background, with a CHICKEN, raising his wings in the air as if in a sign of surrender. I never held with it though. The Korean War casualty list debunks this myth, and the 18th's patch to me always looked like the rooster was raising his wings up like he was about to beat somebody's @$$!

There is also a rumor that the "ZZ" tail code came from the fact that, had the 18th's pilots slept through the Korean War, the war's outcome would have been no different.

I was always under the impression that "ZZ" meant something in the local Okinawan dialect. Akruse, can you, or some of your buddies at Kadena confirm/dispel this?

Beers and MiGs were made to be pounded!

maddog2840 wrote:So what about the "The wing is forbidden to return to the CONUS". Story/urbanlegend/rumor/fact??

Very enlightening.. all these years I thought "ZZ" meant "Asleep at the Switch".

Seems to me that there are other units assigned to USAFE and PACAF that have spent their whole time overseas. They don't move wings around just to move them. They just rotate the people. Why aren't people saying Triple Nickle has been forbidden to come home due to the fact that they've been in Italy so long? What did the 1st FW do to be stuck at Langley since WW 1?