The workhorse of Vietnam was the F-4 Phantom II. It was used in a number of combat roles.

Very few F-4 squadrons remain. Only in reserve units, like the "Wild Weasels", the F-4 will soon disappear from active service, being replaced by the more agile, faster, and electronically superior F-16's and F/A-18's.

PCAM's F-4 was an Air Force jet. After its service life was over, the jet was assigned to the Sierra Army Depot, on Highway 395, north of Reno. The jet was going to be used as a "crash and burn" victim, being torched for fire fighters to practice putting out aircraft fires. The Army never put one match to it. The aircraft sat for several years, along with a twin F-4, way out in the middle of nowhere on the base. Army officials finally decided to get rid of the aircraft and looked for places to dispose of them.

As fate would have it, two museums got word of the aircraft and applied for acquisition. PCAM was one of the museums selected to receive one of the aircraft.

In 1994, crews of PCAM members spent many hours on the Army base, in desolate conditions, taking the F-4 apart. It was very hard as the aircraft was built to take a lot of abuse, and was not easy to dismantle.

Slowly, pieces began to arrive, and other crews, as well as the disassembly crews, put it back together, for a permanent home at Sonoma county. The history of the aircraft is being researched.