Upper Hayford

Upper Heyford Commemorative T-Shirt

This shirt was done way back in 1991 after the 1st Gulf War.  My wife and I were in the Air Force and stationed in England as part of a huge medical evacuation unit made up of several different squadrons from around our country.  The commander of this unit was from Texas and thought his unit was better that everyone else.  He flew the Texas flag over the command center and bragged about Texas this and Texas that.  My squadron was from California, so about a week before we were leaving to come home, a group of us snuck into the command center and took down the Texas flag and put up the California flag.  We held the Texas flag for ransom, sent a note made from magazine clippings and a picture of the flag with a current newspaper and guns pointed at it.  The commander was soooooo mad about it, we had to hide out for a couple of days in Oxford.  We gave it back to him before we left during a huge flag swap ceremony, somebody in his group had a good sense of humor, because it was treated as a prisoner exchange with an honor guard and a couple of hundred people standing in formation...I was half expecting jets to fly over.  That was one of my best military memories, and I designed this shirt to commemorate the event...practically everyone in my squadron wanted one.