![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/images\/vmfa122.png\")
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The “Werewolves” have become the “Crusaders” once again.<\/em><\/p>\n Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 (VMFA-122<\/a>) is returning to its traditional name, reverting to the “Crusaders”<\/a> by which it was known for 50 years.<\/p>\n During a 70th anniversary party last month, officials from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 announced that the unit would be again known as the “Crusaders,” a moniker used by the unit from 1958 to January 2008.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n When Marine LtCol William Lieblein took command in 2008, he was concerned the “notion of being a crusader” wouldn’t “float” in Iraq, to which the unit was to be deployed.\u00a0 He reverted the unit to a World War II era mascot, and they became the “Werewolves.”<\/p>\n The new commander, LtCol Wade “WZL” Wiegel, made the decision with regard to the unit’s 70th anniversary as an act of heritage.<\/p>\n [Wiegel] doesn’t see the nickname as being politically incorrect, and the recent change was made out of deference to the unit’s history.<\/p>\n “It’s a way for our Marines to draw on the service of the Marines before them, and to make their own history under the same name,” [Wiegel] said. “My intent was to return the squadron to the Crusader name since 50 of the squadron’s 70 years were under that name. The name change is a reflection of our heritage.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n VMFA-122 became the “Crusaders” in 1958.\u00a0 That’s when\u00a0they transitioned from the FJ-3 Fury<\/em> to the F-8A Crusader<\/em>.\u00a0 (A unit Lieutenant found their new mascot, a small armored knight named Mach Altus<\/a>, in a second hand shop the next year.)<\/p>\n Michael Weinstein has previously sued the US Air Force because the 523rd Fighter Squadron went by the name\u00a0“Crusaders.”<\/a>\u00a0 He even took credit for the unit closing down<\/a>, though that decision was made prior <\/em>to his complaint.\u00a0 (As noted in his most recent failed lawsuit<\/a>, he apparently has problems with the linear concept of time.)<\/p>\n Cue selective outrage<\/a> from Weinstein in 3, 2…<\/p>\n Also<\/a> at the Marine Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The “Werewolves” have become the “Crusaders” once again. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 (VMFA-122) is returning to its traditional name, reverting to the “Crusaders” by which it was known for 50 years. During a 70th anniversary party last month, officials from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 announced that the unit would be again known as the “Crusaders,” a moniker used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[251,134,250,5285,2634,2635,52,3159,3161,149,85,2,5218,7,10,3160,40,3154,3158,3157,3155,3156,123,3163],"class_list":["post-17327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-523rd","tag-air-force","tag-crusader","tag-fighter-pilot","tag-flying-spaghetti-monster","tag-fsm","tag-iraq","tag-lucifers-messengers","tag-mach-altus","tag-marines","tag-mikey-weinstein","tag-military","tag-military-religious-freedom-foundation","tag-mrff","tag-religion","tag-thunderbolts","tag-tradition","tag-vmfa-122","tag-vmfa-251","tag-wade-wiegel","tag-werewolves","tag-william-lieblein","tag-world-war-ii","tag-wzl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/images\/vmfa251.png\")
Weinstein will likely\u00a0take issue not only with VMFA-122, but also their sister unit at Beaufort MCAS<\/a>, VMFA-251<\/a>.\u00a0 VMFA-251 transitioned from the Flying Spaghetti Monster<\/strong>, to Lucifer’s Messengers<\/strong>, and finally to the Thunderbolts<\/strong>.<\/p>\n