Just 19 Special Service Package (SSP) Mustang LX
5.0L coupes were built for USAF use between 1986
and 1991. One of the eight ordered in 1988 is our
feature car, owned by Keith Suzuki of Concord,
California. Prior to its delivery to Beale AFB, this
automatic transmission–equipped LX was resprayed
in nonmetallic USAF Strato Blue over the factoryapplied Dark Shadow Blue Metallic. The black alloy
wheels were shot in the Strato Blue as well. From
there a two-way aircraft radio, an aircraft-type wedge
antenna, a Whelen Edge amber lightbar, and USAF
“Official Use Only” door decals were added.
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The Mustang was then tagged “United States
Air Force Mobile Unit One,” and its identification
number was stenciled under the hood: 88B 9971,
AFE RAF A, which decodes to its USAF license number, Air Force Europe, Royal Air Force-Alconbury. It
was then placed in a transport plane with an identical ’88 SSP tagged “Mobile Unit 70” and flown to
RAF Alconbury in England where it would serve for
a number of years with the 17th Reconnaissance
Wing and the 95th Reconnaissance Squadron.
RAF Alconbury was the largest U-2 base outside
the United States. There were originally three
Mustangs stationed there — an ’86 and the two ’88s,
but by the time the Persian Gulf War got underway,
the ’86 had been totaled and only the ’88s remained.
While stationed in England, the last pilot to crash a
U-2 at Alconbury survived and rode from the crash
site in this Mustang. In the excitement, he left his hat