I'm pretty sure the U-2 was also never given an official callsign.
"Dragon Lady" has stuck over the years, but it was from a character from the cartoon series Terry and the Pirates.

I think we had two at SJAFB hangered of the end of the runway for Soviet bomber interdiction in the mid-70's...

Sorry for the confusion. Yes, the F-111E.

I do believe the 111 was officially called the Aardvark when it retired from the US inventory.

The EF-111(Raven) had similar capabilities as the EA-6, but the Raven was not capable of carrier operations and did not carry any weapon like the Prowler can.

The 111 was originally designed for the Navy for fleet defense but due to it's weight, high landing speed and side by side cockpit (among other reasons), the Navy backed out of it's development.

A civilian's perspective
 

Thank God McNamara didn't get the F-111B and the Navy got their Tomcats. The political fighting involved must have been ugly.

McNamara was all about the "one weapon for all services" concept. After all the different modifications to the 111 to make it work for both the AF and the Navy, they were 2 totally different planes. As a fighter, the 111 was not manueverable enough. As a low level penetration bomber, nothing could beat it. (In my opinion)

The current iteration of that ill-conceived notion is called the F-35.......

Back to topic: the F-111F was the best of the bunch. It wasn't a fighter, but it was a great interdiction bomber.

Ironically, it killed more tanks in Desert Storm than the A-10...by "plinking" them with LGBs (only the 111F and Strike Eagle could do that in the USAF at the time).

Plus the F-111B was too dang heavy. But I could go on all day about that and then there's McNamara...

I remember seeing the 'home movies' during Destern Storm showing highlights from some of the sorties the F-111 flew.

Thanks to all of you in our military for doing the job so well.