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Air & Space Snapshot

May 13, 2008

To Serve Man
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Geographer Trevor Paglen has put together a collection of patches from secret military projects in his book, I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems From the Pentagon's Black World. This is the modified version of a patch commemorating a flight test series involving a B-2 "Spirit" stealth bomber from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The alien is a reference to the 509th's lineage -- in 1947, the unit was based at Roswell, New Mexico, home of the famed Roswell UFO incident. The patch shown here is a modified version of the original; when Air Force officials insisted that the phrase "Classified Flight Test" not appear on the design, it was replaced with the words "To Serve Man," referencing a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. The phrase Gustatus Similis Pullus translates as "Tastes Like Chicken." Note the knife and fork.
(Excerpted by permission of the publisher from I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me: Emblems From the Pentagon's Black World by Trevor Paglen, Melville House Publishing, 2007.)