The 374th Airlift Wing’s “Swift to Fight” motto is visible above the doors of the largest hangar at Yokota Air Base, Japan, on June 26, 2026. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The 374th Airlift Wing has emblazoned its “Swift to Fight” motto above the doors of the largest hangar at this air base in western Tokyo.
In June, workers painted huge brown letters spelling out the words on the front of Hangar 15 — a 50-foot-tall, 78-year-old structure near the south end of Yokota’s runway.
The motto appears in Latin as “celeriter pugnare” on the wing’s emblem, approved in 1951, which includes a winged foot and an armored hand clutching a dagger, and arrow and a wheat stalk.
The motto is half of the wing chant: “Samurai Strong, Swift to Fight,” wing spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Macaiah Honable said by email June 18.
The newly painted message with Mount Fuji as an idyllic backdrop will serve as a visual reminder of the unit’s core identity to maneuver and sustain forces at speed, she said.
“This project culminates a multi-year messaging campaign to connect all of Team Yokota with our primary weapons system, the flightline,” she said. “It is there that the region’s premier logistics hub projects airpower and provides combat support across the Indo-Pacific at a moment’s notice.”
The 164-foot-wide Hangar 15 is big enough to accommodate the C-130J Super Hercules transport planes operated by the wing.
The facility’s size makes it the preferred spot for command-change ceremonies for base leaders or the three-star generals who lead U.S. Forces Japan and 5th Air Force.
During Yokota’s annual Friendship Festival, the hangar houses a stage where bands entertain locals who come to check out military aircraft outside.
In November 2017 troops filled the hangar and chanted “USA! USA!” during a visit by President Donald Trump who spoke to them wearing a leather flight jacket in front of a giant American flag and F-16 and F-35B fighters.
