At the start of Operation Rolling Thunder in 1965, the USAF did not have an all-weather precision fighter-bomber but the swing-wing F-111A provided this capability. Introduced to combat prematurely in 1968, the type later returned to play a key role in Linebacker operations over North Vietnam in 1972. This one was delivered to the 429th TFS, 474th TFW at Nellis AFB in 1969, deploying to Tahkli R Thai AB in October 1972. In 1996 it was transferred to the 389th TFS/366th TFW at Mountain AFB, ID with tail code "MO" and was ferried to the museum by mid-1992

The Aardvark on display at the National Museum of the USAF is marked as it appeared in 1972-1973 when assigned to the 474th TFW during Operation Linebacker II to provide night strikes against North Vietnamese targets.