339 Squadron "Ajax"

339 ΜΟΙΡΑ ΠΑΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΙΡΟΥ

The 339 All Weather Squadron was formed on July 7 1952, at Elefsis airbase, as the 339 Fighter Bomber Squadron and equiped with F-84G aircraft.

In August 1959 the Squadron received the new F-84F and redeployed to Larissa airbase.

In April 1960 it redeployed to the Nea Anchialos airport at 111 Combat Wing. In March 1971 it redeployed to Andravida airport at 117 Combat Wing where it is based till today.

In 1973 it redeployed temporarily to Araxos airport at 116 CW, in order to perform necessary infrastructure works at Andravida for the reception of the F-4E Phantom II.

After the works’ completion at 117 CW, the 339 Sqn returns and integrates in its force the new aircraft, and was renamed to 339 All Weather Intercept Squadron.

In September 1978, the Sqn takes on as its main role the Fighter Bomber mission and as secondary the Intercept. In February 1982 it assumes as a main role the Intercept and as a secondary the Fighter Bomber.

AJAX
The man depictured on the patch is Ajax or Aias. He was a mythological Greek hero, the son of Telamon and Periboea and king of Salamis. He plays an important role in Homer's Iliad and in the Epic Cycle, a series of epic poems about the Trojan War. To distinguish him from Ajax, son of Oileus, he is called "Telamonian Ajax," "Greater Ajax," or "Ajax the Great".
In Homer's Iliad he is described as of great stature and colossal frame, the tallest and strongest of all the Achaeans, but for his cousin Achilles in skill-at-arms, and Diomedes to whom he lost a sparring competition as well as the 'bulwark of the Achaeans'. He was trained by the centaur Chiron (who had also trained his father, Telamon, and Achilles' father Peleus), at the same time as Achilles. Apart from Achilles, Ajax is the most valuable warrior in Agamemnon's army (along with Diomedes), though he is not as cunning as Nestor, Diomedes, Idomeneus, or Odysseus. He commands his army wielding a huge shield made of seven ox-hides with a layer of bronze. He is not wounded in any of the battles described in the Iliad.