Page 36 - F-35B and USMC

The Integration of the F-35B into USMC Operations

Commander, Training Landing Signal Officer, Air Combat Tactics Instructor, Low Altitude Tactics Instructor,
Functional Check Flight pilot and Demonstration pilot.

His personal decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with Strike Numeral “12”, Navy
and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, third award, and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal,
fourth award.

http://www.3rdmaw.marines.mil/Leaders/LeadersView/Article/614148/lieutenant-colonel-bardo/
The first slideshow shows the squadron on the day we visited and are credited to Second Line of Defense.

The second slideshow shows the squadron participating in Steel Knight and operating at Red Beach.

The third slideshow shows them at Red Flag in an all-US air combat exercise.

The fourth slideshow shows a Japanese visit to the squadron in Yuma earlier this year with Lt. Col. Bardo
working with the Japanese visitors.

The photos for the final three slideshows are all credited to the USMC.
Editor’s Note: When you visit the squadron, in the main building there is a Joseph Foss room.

Looking at the history of the squadron and Joe Foss’s role in that history, one can understand the
heritage being built into the new combat capability represented by the F-35 B for the 21st Century USMC.

Tradition clearly matters.

Joseph Foss, C.O. VMF-121, Medal of Honor Recipient

By Stephen Sherman, July, 1999. Updated June 30, 2011.
Joe Foss was born on April 17, 1915 to a Norwegian-Scots family in South Dakota. He learned hunting and
marksmanship at a young age. Like millions of others, 11-year old Joe Foss was inspired by Charles
Lindbergh, especially after he saw Lindy at an airport near Sioux Falls.

Five years later he watched a Marine squadron put on a dazzling exhibition, led by Capt. Clayton Jerome,
future wartime Director of Marine Corps Aviation.

In 1934, Joe began his college education in Sioux Falls, but he had to drop out to help his mother run the
family farm. However he scraped up $65 for private flying lessons. Five years later he entered the University
of South Dakota again and supported himself by waiting on tables. In his senior year he also completed a
civilian pilot training program before he graduated with a Business degree in 1940.

Upon graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps reserves as an aviation cadet. Seven months later, he
earned his Marine wings at Pensacola and was commissioned a second lieutenant. For the next nine months he
was a ‘plowback’ flight instructor. He was at Pensacola when the news of Pearl Harbor broke, and since he
was Officer of the Day, he was placed in charge of base security. Thus he prepared to defend Pensacola
from Jap invaders, riding around the perimeter on a bicycle.

Second Line of Defense

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