--- title: "Military pilots, show us the lucky charms you fly with! (we know you’re out there!)" description: "Are you a military aviator who flies with a lucky charm, keepsake or stuffed animal? We want to hear from you!" date: "2021-02-12" modified: "2021-02-12" authors: - name: "David Roza" job_title: "YouTube Writer/Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/david-roza/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/military-pilot-lucky-charms/" categories: - "Aircraft" - "Culture" - "Mandatory Fun" - "Tech & Tactics" tags: - "announcements" --- # Military pilots, show us the lucky charms you fly with! (we know you’re out there!) ![]() We love to cover weird stuff at Task & Purpose, like a [Looney Tunes painting]() of the Global War on Terror; the old-timey [helmet gun]() and [whatever the hell this thing is](). And we know that you love it too, which is why we need your help on our latest strange adventure in journalism. Earlier this year, we ran a heart-warming story about an F-15 pilot who flies with [a plush ducky]() in the cockpit to remind him of his daughter back home. "I didn’t want my daughter to think I lived inside the phone,” said Munoz, formerly of the England-based 494th Fighter Squadron and now chief of plans for the 335th Fighter Squadron. “I took Scoff \[the duck\] so she could connect me with something she had possession of in reality. It was a crucial bonding experience for us.” ![]() *Air Force Capt. Andrew Munoz, former 494th Fighter Squadron F-15E Strike Eagle pilot and now 335th Fighter Squadron chief of plans, greets his daughter with Scoff the Duck after returning from a deployment at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, March 4, 2020. Munoz brought Scoff on the deployment so that his daughter could follow along with their adventures and have a connection to her father in his absence. (Courtesy Photo)* The duck was named after the AA-10D heat-seeking missile, also known as a ‘duck.’ The phrase ‘don’t scoff the duck’ is often dropped before every training sortie, as Munoz explained. Scoff soon becomes an unofficial mascot for the pilot’s fighter wing, with his orange-billed face shared across social media and on a morale patch. "Scoff coming into the limelight really connected the community to the pilots and their work,” said Mike Whitbread, a local aviation enthusiast, in an Air Force [press release](). ”It was something to personalize the pilot, rather than just being a guy in an F-15.” Though Munoz is now back in the U.S. with the 335th Fighter Squadron, he said he plans to save a seat for Scoff in the cockpit for the rest of his flying career, until he can finally be returned to the original owner. “I think it will be a special memento for her when she grows up,” said Munoz. “She will have something to remind her that she was always with me in some kind of way, no matter where I was in the world.” Since the story came out, we’ve heard from readers that there are more pilots, crew members, or other military aviators out there who bring stuffed animals or other lucky charms and keepsakes up in the air with them. We would love to hear more and tell their stories. Are you a military pilot, aviator or crew member who flies with a stuffed animal or other kind of special object? Are you a veteran who used to do so? We want to hear from you! Email our intrepid Air Force reporter David Roza at [david.roza@taskandpurpose.com]() Email away, and thank you for your assistance citizen! ***Related: [The adorable story of Scoff, the plushy ducky who flies in an F-15]()*** ## Author David Roza writes scripts about military news for the Task & Purpose YouTube channel, and he also writes articles about military pay, benefits, health care, child care, culture, and other personnel topics on a freelance basis. Roza previously covered the Air Force and Space Force for Task & Purpose from 2019 to 2023 and for Air & Space Forces Magazine from 2023 to 2025. In the course of that reporting, he has set off a ‘Hollywood explosion’ with Air Force bomb techs, turned the (unarmed) keys of a nuclear missile bunker, hovered over the Nevada desert on an Air Force rescue helicopter, and got the best sleep of his life on the floor of a C-17 over the central Pacific. Share tips and story ideas with David at [david.roza@teamrecurrent.io]()