Within Stockham’s hold, an American sailor sprayed olive-drab paint over the starred and winged roundel already there, over unit numbers on the aircraft’s empennages, and the word: ‘MARINES’ that adorned its tail. When the paint had dried, the sailors applied new stencils to the Lightning II’s radar-absorbent material, and began to spray colors. When peeled back, the first stencil left behind a red, white, and blue bulls-eye that, through history, has graced Avros, Bristols, Sopwiths, Hawkers and Supermarines, and British Aerospace, and Eurofighter aircraft. With a whiff of polyester urethane Jet Glo Express, this proud bulls-eye now shined on a Lockheed Martin creation, and it would shield an island. Proud of his work, the sailor waved away help from another, and chose to apply another stencil by himself. He carefully taped it into position on the aircraft’s tail and sprayed the body of the F-35B. The sailor removed the paper outline. He revealed the name of the new owner of this Lightning II:
‘ROYAL NAVY.’