Carrier Air Wing Seventeen

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Carrier Air Wing Seventeen
- CVW-17 -

Association badge
Lineup April 1, 1944
Country United StatesUnited States United States
Armed forces United States Navy
Strength approx. 2,500 people
Location Naval Air Station Lemoore, CA
USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70)

The Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17) is an aircraft carrier squadron of the US Navy .

history

Second World War

CVG-82 on the USS Bennington in 1944

Carrier Air Wing SEVENTEEN was formed on April 1, 1944, during World War II , as Carrier Air Group 82 (CVG-82).

The squadron included the VF-82 (Grumman F6F Hellcat) , VB-82 (Curtiss SB2C Helldiver) , VT-82 Grumman TBM Avenger and the USMC VMF-112 and VMF-123 (Vought F4U Corsair) . The squadron was assigned to the new aircraft carrier Bennington on September 29, 1944 . After training trips on the east coast of the USA and near Hawaii, the Bennington with CVG-82 reached the 5th Fleet on February 7, 1945 . Nine days later, CVG-82 flew the first attacks on targets near Tokyo, especially the Nachijo Jima, Nanpo Shoto, Mikatagahara and Hamamatsu airfields. From February 20-22, the squadron supported the invasion of Iwo Jima . Three days later, attacks were carried out again on the Tokyo area. In March targets were attacked in the Japanese Inland Sea and the island of Okinawa attacked to the local landing support. On April 7, 1945, the CVG-82 aircraft were involved in the sinking of the battleship Yamato , which was to be used in a suicide mission against the US forces. The squadron continued to launch attacks in support of US troops on Okinawa until June 1945 . On June 17, the squadron on the Bennington was finally replaced by Carrier Air Group One and transferred to the USA on the escort carrier USS White Plains (CVE-66) . During the mission on the Bennington , the squadron were awarded 167 shot down and 220 enemy aircraft destroyed on the ground. At the same time, the squadron lost 40 pilots and 13 other crew members, which was 25% of the nominal strength.

1940s and 1950s

CVG-17 on the USS Coral Sea

After the Second World War , the squadron was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet. In October 1946 the squadron's first post-war deployment on board the Randolph took place . During this mission, Carrier Air Group 82 was renamed Carrier Air Group Seventeen (CVG-17) on November 16, 1946 . By 1953, the squadron made a total of eight trips to the Mediterranean on the carriers Randolph , Midway , Franklin D. Roosevelt and Coral Sea . Between September 1953 and May 1954, CVG-17 orbited the earth aboard the Wasp . 1955 followed another mission on the Coral Sea in the Mediterranean. By March 1958, the squadron made three missions again on the Franklin D. Roosevelt carrier . To avoid the risk of Soviet intervention during the Suez Crisis , the squadron on the Franklin D. Roosevelt was sent to the Mediterranean Sea together with the Forrestal from Norfolk (Virginia) in November 1956 to support the aircraft carriers Randolph and Coral Sea stationed there . On September 16, 1958, the CVG-17 was decommissioned.

Reactivation: 1966 to date

F4D-1 of the VF-74 on the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt

On November 1, 1966, the now called Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17) was reactivated for the Atlantic Fleet. Until 1982 the squadron remained stationed at the Forrestal aircraft carrier . The squadron's first mission was to Vietnam between June and September 1967 . After four days of action with 150 missions, a catastrophic accident occurred on July 29, 1967 when a misfired Zuni missile detonated between the operational aircraft. As a result, 134 crew members were killed, 62 were injured, 26 aircraft were destroyed and 40 damaged.

After the repair, a further eleven trips on the Forrestal into the Mediterranean followed between 1968 and 1982 . During the 1974 mission, the squadron's planes covered the evacuation of US citizens from Cyprus , during the Greek-Turkish conflict in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion in July 1974. In 1976, US President Gerald Ford started the celebrations for the 200th year - Celebrate the American Revolution aboard Forrestal .

On January 15, 1978, the Forrestal was about 60 km from Florida when an A-7E Corsair of the VA-81 Squadron crashed on landing and crashed into another A-7E and an EA-6B Prowler . Two crew members died and 10 were injured. In March 1981, the squadron was back in the Mediterranean, when two F-14A Tomcat the Nimitz shot down two Libyan aircraft. While the 3-year SLEP was carried out on the Forrestal from November 1982 , CVW-17 was stationed on the Saratoga .

A-6E Intruder of the USS Enterprise 1996

By 1994, CVW-17 was assigned to the Saratoga for six missions . On October 10, 1985, F-14A Tomcat of the squadrons VF-74 Be-Devilers and VF-103 Sluggers intercepted a Boeing 737 in which the hijackers of the Italian passenger ship Achille Lauro were flying and forced them to land at the US base in Sigonella Italy. In April 1986, the squadron's planes were used to bomb targets in Libya during Operation El Dorado Canyon . Besides units from the USAF , CVW-13 from Coral Sea and CVW-1 from America were also involved . In 1991, CVW-17 was used in Operation Desert Storm . The squadron flew missions in Iraq continuously for 43 days . In total, the squadron's planes dropped around 1,800 tons of weapons. An F / A-18C Hornet of the VFA-81 squadron and an F-14A Tomcat of the VF-103 squadron were shot down.

In 1988 CVW-17 was stationed on Independence for a few weeks , and in 1993 on Constellation . In 1992 the aircraft of the CVW-17 were used for surveillance flights over Yugoslavia (Operations Deny Flight and Provide Promise ) and over Iraq in Operation Southern Watch .

After the Saratoga was decommissioned, CVW-17 was stationed on the Enterprise in June 1996 . In 1998 a mission followed on the Dwight D. Eisenhower , 2000, 2002 and 2006 CVW-17 was stationed for three missions on the George Washington , 2004 on the John F. Kennedy . Since 2003 the squadron has been continuously deployed in Iraq. CVW-17 squadrons played a key role in providing ground support during operations in Fallujah , which began on November 7, 2003. During the height of the fighting, CVW-17 squadrons flew an average of 38 sorties a day. The CVW-17 flew 8,296 sorties with a total of 21,824 flight hours. Of these, 4,396 missions with 11,607 flight hours during Operation Iraqi Freedom , in which you dropped and fired around 27 tons of ordnance. VFA-34 dropped the first two 250 kg JDAM precision bombs that are supposed to help minimize collateral damage with their comparatively low explosive power .

CVW-17 on deck of USS George Washington in April 2008

From April 7th to May 27th 2008 CVW-17 was probably used for the last time on the George Washington . The carrier replaces the Kitty Hawk in Japan and takes over the CVW-5 squadron stationed there . CVW-17 circled South America with the George Washington . However, the four fighter-bomber squadrons were replaced by those of the CVW-7 , whose carrier, Dwight D. Eisenhower , was staying in the shipyard. These were the squadrons VFA-83, VFA-103, VFA-131 and VFA-143, which also retained the squadron identification "AG" (from CVW-7).

CVW-17 is currently in use on the Carl Vinson , which is located off Haiti, to provide the residents of the earthquake disaster there with relief supplies and to fly the injured onto the aircraft carrier, where they should receive medical help.

Current composition

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 (“tail code”). However, since these were difficult to remember or to describe, letters were introduced as early as June 1945 to distinguish the squadrons. CVG-17 had the tail code "R". In 1957 the individual letters were replaced by doubles. In general, the squadrons of the Atlantic Fleet have an "A" as the first letter and those of the Pacific Fleet an "N". The Carrier Air Group Seventeen was recognized in 1958 by the tail code "AL". When the squadron was re-established in 1966, it was assigned the code "AA", which was valid until 2012. After the Carl Vinson moved to the Pacific Fleet in 2010, the tailcode was changed to NA in 2013 . The individual squadrons of the squadron are numbered in increments of 100, the aircraft of the squadron commander ( Commander, Air Group (CAG) ) can be recognized by the tactical number ending in "00".

F / A-18F of the VFA-22 squadron of the CVW-17 in 2013 on the USS Carl Vinson with the new tail unit code "NA"

Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) currently (June 2010, CVN-70 USS Carl Vinson) consists of the following squadrons:

tactical number Season Aircraft type Nickname Radio callsign
from 100 VFA-22 Boeing F / A-18F Super Hornet Fighting Redcocks Beef
From 200 VFA-25 Boeing F / A-18E Super Hornet Fist of the Fleet Fist
from 300 VFA-81 Boeing F / A-18E Super Hornet Sunliners Liner
from 400 VFA-113 McDonnell Douglas F / A- 18C Hornet Stingers Stinger
from 500 VAQ-134 Grumman EA-6B Prowler Garudas Garuda
from 600 VAW-125 Grumman E- 2C Hawkeye 2000 NP Tiger tails Tiger / tiger tail
from 610 HS-15 Sikorsky SH-60F / HH-60H Seahawk Red Lions Red Lion
xx VRC-30 Det. 4 Grumman C-2 A Greyhound Rawhides Rawhide

References

  1. ↑ http://www.uss-bennington.org/stz-vb-82.html
  2. ↑ http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/docs/970100-jb.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.gonavy.jp/CVG-CVG17f.html
  4. ↑ http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=64
  5. ↑ http://www.navy.mil/navydata/navy_legacy_hr.asp?id=65
  6. ↑ a b  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gonavy.jp
  7. ↑ http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=50562
  8. ↑ http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/APP23.PDF
  9. ↑ http://www.gonavy.jp/AIRLANTf.html
  10. ↑ CombatEdgeProductions.com
  11. ↑ http://www.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=55344

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