Carrier Air Wing Three

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Carrier Air Wing Three
- CVW-3 -

Association badge
Lineup July 1, 1938
Country United StatesUnited States United States
Armed forces United States Navy
Strength approx. 2,500 people
Location Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia ;
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75)

The Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) was launched on July 1, 1938. It is one of the United States Navy's two oldest and longest-standing squadrons and is currently (January 2009) assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) .

history

A TBD-1 Devastator of the VT-3 Squadron in the Battle of Midway

Second World War

Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) was established on July 1, 1938 as the Saratoga Air Group of the aircraft carrier Saratoga (CV-3) . The Saratoga was assigned to the Pacific Fleet and was on December 7, 1941 on the way from Puget Sound (Washington) to San Diego (California), where the carrier squadron was stationed. On January 11, 1942, however, the Saratoga was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine 500 nautical miles southwest of Oahu . After that, the carrier squadron remained in Hawaii while the carrier drove to Puget Sound for repairs. The squadron was therefore ready at the end of May 1942 to be used on the Yorktown , whose carrier squadron suffered great losses in the battle in the Coral Sea . On June 4, 1942, the squadron's planes sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Sōryū in the Battle of Midway . After Yorktown was badly damaged, the squadron's planes continued to fly from the Enterprise and were involved in the sinking of the aircraft carrier Hiryū on the same day and the heavy cruiser Mikuma on June 6, 1942. The squadron had to accept heavy losses at Midway, so the torpedo squadron VT-3 lost ten of the twelve Douglas TBD-1 Devastator deployed .

In August and September 1942, the squadron took part again on board the Saratoga in the invasion of the Salmon Island Guadalcanal . On August 23, 1942, the squadron's planes sank the light Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō in the Battle of the Eastern Solomon Islands . The following day, however, the Saratoga was torpedoed again by a Japanese submarine and had to be sent to the USA for repairs. The squadron's squadrons were therefore deployed from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in September .

On September 25, 1943, the squadron was officially renamed Carrier Air Group Three (CVG-3) . In 1944/45 it took part in the battles for the Philippines and Iwo Jima on board the new aircraft carrier Yorktown .

CVG-3 in 1954 aboard USS Tarawa
Four CVG-3 aircraft on their first mission on the
USS Saratoga in 1958

Korean War

Between June 1947 and August 1950, CVG-3 made three missions in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, two with the aircraft carrier Kearsarge and one with the Leyte . In September 1950, the squadron was relocated to the Leyte in the Pacific, to be used from October 1950 to January 1951 in the Korean War. In 1951 and 1952 there were again deployment trips on the Leyte into the Mediterranean. From November 1953 to September 1954, the CVG-3 orbited the earth on the Tarawa . From Norfolk, Virginia, the journey went eastward through the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal back to Norfolk. In 1955/56 the squadron on the Ticonderoga was used again in the Mediterranean.

Vietnam

In February 1958, CVG-3 was assigned to the new Saratoga aircraft carrier . During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the squadron was stationed on bases in Florida. On December 20, 1963, CVG-3 was renamed Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) . The squadron remained stationed on the Saratoga until August 1980 and made 16 trips to the Mediterranean and, from April 1972 to February 1973, one to Vietnam .

The 80s

An F-4J of the VF-31 squadron lands on the
USS Saratoga in 1980
A-7E as the CAG Bird of the VA-72 Squadron in 1991

From 1982 to 1993 the CVW-3 was stationed on the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy and made eight trips to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. During the mission in 1988/89, two F-14A Tomcat of the VF-32 Swordsmen fighter squadron shot down two Libyan MiG-23 floggers on January 4, 1989 .

The 90s

In August 1990, the John F. Kennedy set sail with CVW-3 to transfer to the Red Sea and took part in Operation Desert Shield . The attacks by the coalition forces began on January 17, 1991. The squadron was the first to actively participate in the Gulf War and also flew the first attacks on Baghdad . During this time the CVW-3 flew around 2,900 sorties and dropped over 1,900 tons of ordnance in the contested areas.

From October 1992 to April 1993 John F. Kennedy moved to the Mediterranean . The squadron flew surveillance flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina . In 1994 it was stationed on the Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Mediterranean. Here too, surveillance flights were flown over Bosnia and Herzegovina again . With the Dwight D. Eisenhower , the squadron took part in Operation Southern Watch .

In March 1996, the squadron VMFA-312 checkerboards joined the squadron. It replaced the second Fighter Squadron with F-14 Tomcat, making it the third F / A-18 Hornet Squadron. The squadron was stationed on the Theodore Roosevelt that same year . During this overseas stationing, the association took part in Operations Deliberate Guard and Southern Watch .

F-14A of Squadrons VF-32 and VF-14 of CVW-3 in 1986 aboard USS John F. Kennedy

In 1998/99, CVW-3 moved to the Enterprise for a mission to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf . Here the squadron fired the first rockets and bombs of Operation Desert Fox , which resulted in the destruction of targets in southern Iraq .

From 2000

CVW-3 has been stationed on the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman since November 2000 . During the first mission to the Indian Ocean, the squadron flew so-called "Response Option" missions (attack in the event of diplomacy failure). These were the heaviest attacks on Iraq since Operation Desert Fox to aid overall Operation Southern Watch . Between 2002 and 2010, five more voyages followed on the Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. On July 22, 2013, the carrier began another mission with the CVW-3 on board.

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-3 was assigned the letter "K". 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 Three bears the tail identification ( tailcode ) AC .

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".

CVW-3 on deck of USS Harry S. Truman in November 2007

The Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3) currently (July 2013, USS Harry S. Truman ) includes the following squadrons:

tactical number Season Aircraft type Nickname Radio callsign
from 100 VFA-32 Boeing F / A-18F Super Hornet Swordsmen Gypsy
From 200 VFMA-312 McDonnell Douglas F / A-18C Hornet Checkerboards Check / checkerboard
from 300 VFA-37 McDonnell Douglas F / A-18C Hornet Ragin 'Bulls Bull
from 400 VFA-105 Boeing F / A-18E Super Hornet Gunslingers Canyon
from 500 VAQ-130 Boeing EA-18G Growler Zappers Zapper
from 600 VAW-126 Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Seahawks Seahawk
from 610 HSC-7 Sikorsky MH-60S Seahawk Dusty Dogs Shamrock
from 700 HSM-74 Sikorsky MH-60R Seahawk Swamp Foxes
xx VRC-40 Det. 4 Grumman C-2A Greyhound Rawhides Rawhide

Individual evidence

  1. a b http://www.gonavy.jp/CVW-ACf.html
  2. CombatEdgeProductions.com editorial team

Web links