Why the Skunk?

The squadron motto, “Spray and Pray,” refers to a technique used by machine gunners whereby they fire their automatic weapons at the enemy in long, sweeping bursts, without lining up each shot or group of shots, yet hoping to achieve accurate results. 

On the Spray and Pray Squadron’s first mission to go down in enemy territory, the B-25’s pilot, Captain Thomas S. Simpson, manned the top turret guns as enemy soldiers advanced from both north and south.  He described his instinctive reaction:  “I cut down every one of them. I didn't fire in bursts. I just poured it on―like with a garden hose. . . . I must have shot about 600 rounds.”  His courageous actions provided a dramatic demonstration of “spray and pray.”

Appearing on a leather patch sewn on their flight jackets and painted on the noses of their B-25 bombers, the North American skunk was chosen as their mascot by American members of the 3rd Bomb Squadron because of its natural defense mechanism: spraying anything that poses a potential threat with a noxious, sulfurous secretion from a scent gland beneath its tail. This small but fearless animal has few natural enemies because of its unexpectedly revolting counterattack against predators.

In the squadron insignia, the skunk wears a self-protective peg-type clothespin on its nose, while its tail is raised in the “armed” position. Above its back is the target: a burnt orange “rising sun” that symbolizes imperial Japan. This distinctive design was created by the squadron supply officer, Captain John C. Hinrichs Jr.

The skunk in the squadron insignia warned the enemy that approaching too near would lead to dire consequences!