338 Squadron "Ares"

338 ΜΟΙΡΑ ΔΙΩΞΗΣ ΒΟΜΒΑΡΔΙΣΜΟΥ

The 338 Squadron was formed on December 24 1952, at Elefsis airbase, as the 338 Fighter Bomber Squadron equiped with F-84G Thunderjet aircraft.

In April 1953, it redeployed to Larissa where it stayed till November 1956, and thereafter redeploed to the 112 Combat Wing. In May 1958 it was incorporated into the 115 CW at Souda and was equiped with F-84G aircraft till January 1960 when it was disbanded.

In August 1953 it was reformed as the 338 Fighter Bomber Squadron at 115CW and armed with the F-84F Thunderstreak.

In June 1974 it redeployed at 117CW Andravida where the F-4E Phantom II were delivered.
After the modernization, the Squadron aircraft assumed fighter bomber missions, with results comparable to those of third generation aircraft.


ARES
The god depictured on the patch is Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. Though often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, he is more accurately the god of bloodlust, or slaughter personified: "Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war. He is an important Olympian god in the epic tradition represented by the Iliad. The reading of his character remains ambiguous, in a late 6th-century funerary inscription from Attica: "Stay and mourn at the tomb of dead Kroisos/ Whom raging Ares destroyed one day, fighting in the foremost ranks".