Quote from a letter from BG Robin Olds.
"Please let me explain something that has bothered a host of fine people
for years. The nickname "Wolf Pack" was a piece of outright plagiarism
and I have had to apologize to the original members of the Hub Zemke's
56th Fighter Group many times over. I don't blame them for resenting my
theft. But here's how it came about. We had prepped for days for the
mission called BOLO. Not one of the pilots selected by their squadron
commanders to fly had ever been in an aerial battle [by this, I think he
means a large-scale W.W.II style fighter sweep]. Yes, the 8th had downed
a few MiGs, but those were chance encounters, not engagements of the sort
I planned for. To say that tension and excitement ran high is putting
it mildly. All was set to go on the first of January. Headquarters 7th
AF ordered a weather-standown at the last moment. We went through the
briefing drill again on the second. At the very end someone stuck his
head in the door and shouted "we have an execute!" There was
bedlam..shouting, back slapping excitement. I finally got the pilots'
attention and without thought called out to them, "All right you Wolf
Pack, let's go get'em!!" The name stuck. The 8th FW, now in Korea, still
calls itself the "Wolf Pack."
