Carrier Air Wing Eight

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Carrier Air Wing Eight
- CVW-8 -

Association badge
Lineup June 1, 1943
Country United StatesUnited States United States
Armed forces United States Navy
Strength approx. 2,500 people
Location Naval Air Station Oceana , Virginia ;
USS George HW Bush (CVN 77)

The Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8) is a carrier squadron for the U.S. Navy . It was set up in June 1943 as Carrier Air Group 8 (CVG-8) and decommissioned in October 1945. From September 1948 to November 1949 CVG-8 was reactivated, again in April 1951.

history

Second World War

F4U-4 of the CVG-8 1951

Carrier Air Group 8 (CVG-8) relocated to the newly commissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid in Norfolk, Virginia in November 1943 . After exercises in the Caribbean and passing the Panama Canal , CVG-8 left the carrier in Pearl Harbor in January 1944 . Here the carrier Bunker Hill took over the squadron in March 1944. From this carrier flew the squadron on March 30th and April 1st, 1944 attacks on the Palau Islands , Yap , the Ulithi Atoll and Woleai . A month later, attacks were carried out on Truk , Satawan and Ponape as well as Hollandia Bay in New Guinea . Between June 12 and August 10, CVG-8 was used in the conquest of the Mariana Islands and took part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the sea ​​and air battle in the Gulf of Leyte . In September the squadron operated in the western Caroline Islands , in October and November it took part in attacks on Okinawa , Luzón and Formosa . For deployments on Bunker Hill received Carrier Air Group 8 (CVG-8) , a Presidential Unit Citation .

post war period

During the short reactivation period in 1948/49, CVG-8 was used by carrier Midway in the Atlantic. The squadron then consisted of two squadrons with Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat and two squadrons with the only briefly deployed Martin AM-1 Mauler .

After reactivation in 1951, as a result of the Korean War , the squadron was used exclusively in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean until 1969. During the first of 13 deployment trips, the CVG-8 was stationed on the Tarawa carrier from November 1951 . This was followed by missions on the carriers Coral Sea , Lake Champlain , Intrepid , Ranger , Forrestal (1960–1966) and Shangri-La (1967–1970).

A 1968 Crusader over the USS Shangri-La

During the mission in 1966/67 the squadron VSF-1 with Douglas A-4B Skyhawk belonged to the squadron, a squadron that was actually set up as a fighter squadron for self-defense of the anti-submarine carriers (CVS) of the Essex class . Like all carrier squadrons, CVG-8 was renamed Carrier Air Wing Eight (CVW-8) on December 20, 1963 .

Vietnam

Although Shangri-La had meanwhile been classified as a submarine carrier CVS-38 for budget reasons , the CVW-8 remained on board during its last mission from March to December 1970, which led to Vietnam . In 1971 the squadron moved to America . By switching from the relatively small Shangri-La (36,000 ts) to the much larger America (83,000 ts), all squadrons of the squadron were replaced and equipped with more powerful aircraft types, especially the F-4J Phantom , A-7E Corsair , A-6E Intruder and E-2B Hawkeye . Equipped in this way, the CVW-8 made another mission off Vietnam from June 1972 to March 1973. During these two years, US Marine Corps squadron VMFA-333 was part of the squadron.

An F-4J of the VF-74 squadron during the 1972/73 Vietnam mission

CVW-8 stayed on America for another year , but in 1975 it was relocated to the Nimitz nuclear powered aircraft carrier , which had just entered service . VMFA-333 was part of the squadron again from 1975 to 1977, until the Fighter Squadrons VF-41 and VF-84 with Grumman F-14 Tomcat replaced the McDonnell F-4 Phantom .

In this configuration, the CVW-8 became 'known' when the 1979 film The Last Countdown u. a. was filmed with Kirk Douglas on the Nimitz . Although all aircraft types in the squadron appeared in the film, the F-14A of the VF-84 "Jolly Rogers" squadron stood out, with black tail stabilizers and a large, white skull. In the film, they were allowed to engage in a dogfight with Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero .

Iran and Libya

CVW-8 remained on board the Nimitz until 1987 . In 1980 the squadron was in action for 140 days during the hostage-taking of Tehran , including Operation Eagle Claw , the unsuccessful liberation operation in April 1980. The aircraft of the CVW-8 were specially equipped with black, red and black identification stripes on the right wing for this operation Mistake. In 1982 the Nimitz operated in the Große Syrte . Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi had declared them to be Libyan territorial waters. On August 18, 1981, there was a confrontation between two F-14 Tomcat and Libyan aircraft, but no shots were fired. The following day, however, two Libyan Sukhoi Su-22s attacked two F- 14s of the VF-41 Black Aces fighter squadron , with the Tomcats shooting down the Su-22s without being hit themselves.

An F-14A of the VF-84 "Jolly Rogers" squadron

Since 1988 CVW-8 has been mainly used on the Theodore Roosevelt . However, there were also service trips on other aircraft carriers, so in early 1990 on Abraham Lincoln , 1996 on John C. Stennis , 1997 on John F. Kennedy and 2001 on Enterprise . From these carriers, the squadron was repeatedly used in Operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom in Iraq. The mission run from September 2005 to March 2006 was the last mission for the Grumman F-14 . The VF-31 and VF-213 fighter squadrons flew the last model, the F-14D . On April 18, 2009, the Theodore Roosevelt returned from the last mission with the CVW-8.

CVW-8 has been used on the George HW Bush since 2010 .

Composition today

The US Navy has had a fixed system for identifying squadrons or squadrons ( Visual Identification System for Naval Aircraft ) since 1945 . Initially, this consisted of geometric patterns on the tail unit. However, since these were difficult to remember or to describe, letters were introduced as early as June 1945 to distinguish the squadrons. CVG-8 has been assigned the letter "E". In 1957 the individual letters were replaced by doubles. In general, the squadrons of the Atlantic Fleet have an "A" as their first letter and those of the Pacific Fleet an "N". The Carrier Air Wing 8 carries the tail identification ( tailcode ) AJ .

The individual squadrons of the squadron are numbered in increments of 100. Each squadron has a so-called CAG Bird , which is officially assigned to the squadron commander ( Commander, Air Group (CAG) ), but is usually not flown by him. The CAG Birds of a Carrier Air Wing can be recognized by the tactical numbers ending in "00", which are also known as "Modex".

Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8) currently (August 2017, CVN-77 USS George HW Bush) includes the following squadrons:

The last F-14 to fly: AJ-204 of VF-213, CVW-8
tactical number Season Aircraft type Nickname Radio callsign
from 100 VFA-31 Boeing F / A-18E Super Hornet Tomcatters Felix / Rhino
From 200 VFA-213 Boeing F / A-18F Super Hornet Black Lions Black Lion
from 300 VFA-87 McDonnell Douglas F / A-18E Super Hornet Golden Warriors Party / War party
from 400 VFA-37 McDonnell Douglas F / A-18C Hornet Bulls
from 500 VAQ-131 Boeing EA-18G Growler Lancers
from 600 VAW-124 Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Bear Aces Bear
from 610 HSC-9 Sikorsky MH-60S Seahawk Tridents Trident
from 700 HSM-70 Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk Spartans Spartan
45, 46 VRC-40 Det. 1 Grumman C-2A Greyhound Rawhides Rawhide

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.wa3key.com/cv11data.html
  2. ↑ USS Bunker Hill (CV 17). In: chinfo.navy.mil. Archived from the original on March 2, 2009 ; accessed on March 16, 2019 (English).
  3. ↑ http://www.gonavy.jp/CVG-CVG8-1f.html
  4. ↑ http://www.gonavy.jp/CVG-CVG8-2f.html
  5. ↑ a b c http://www.gonavy.jp/CVW-AJf.html
  6. ↑ http://gonavy.jp/CVLocation.html
  7. ↑ http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/APP23.PDF