F-4J 155550 had the honour of being among the first USMC J-model Phantoms to serve on combat-duty in SEA. She was originally assigned to the squadron from new production in late May 1968 and deployed to MAG-11 at Da Nang, South Vietnam, on September 1, 1968, together with its squadron VMFA-334 ‘Falcons’. Half a year later the VMFA-334 moved on to MAG-13 at Chu Lai on January 24,  1969. After some 12 months in combat, during which the aircraft flew over 500 combat sorties with just three recorded instances of minor battle damage, 15550 deployed to MAG-15 at Iwakuni, Japan, with the squadron in Late August the same year as part of the force reduction withdrawals from South Vietnam.