The very last baby Hornet deployment ended
Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornets have flown off the flight deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier for the last time. Last week, after a ten-month deployment, the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) arrived in NB San Diego (CA). The event was historical, as the return marked the final F/A-18C Hornet carrier deployment for the US Marine Corps. The Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 323 Death Rattlers ('NA-4xx') returned to their home base, MCAS Miramar (CA) on 25 February 2021, the day before Nimitz arrived at San Diego to offload CVW-17 personnel before heading to is homeport of Bremerton (WA).
VMFA-323 was embarked in the Carrier Air Wing 17 and during the deployment they flew the oldest jets from the super carrier. The wing, including -323 supported missions in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and East Africa during the cruise. The Death Rattlers are now planned for transition from the F/A-18C legacy Hornet to the F-35B Lightning II.
The Death Rattlers flew the Hornet since the early eightees and were first deployed with a carrier in 1985 aboard the aircraft carrier Coral Sea.
The presence of Hornet squadrons within Carrier Air Wings was part of the TACAIR Integration Plan. That plan showed one USMC VMFA-squadron for each of ten CVWs, but that was never realized. TACAIR in its best years fielded four VMFAs in the CVWs. In the near future, all but one VMFA-squadrons operating the F-35B/C will not deploy with a CVW, that one is... VMFA-323!
The program is alive, however, with VMFA-314 — the Corps’ first F-35C squadron — preparing to deploy with a carrier air wing in 2022. The Corps is procuring 67 F-35Cs, a number that will allow it eventually to field four VMFAs equipped with the type in carrier air wings.
VMFA-323 will continue to operate the F/A-18C and will form a fleet replacement detachment to assume the role of training pilots and maintainers for Marine Corps F/A-18C/D squadrons after the fleet replacement squadron, VMFAT-101, is deactivated during fiscal 2023, as the Hornet training load decreases as the type is retired in 2030. According to the Marine Corps’ latest training plan, promulgated in 2019, VMFA-323 will be the Corp’s last active-duty Hornet squadron and will upgrade to the F-35B.
The Death Rattlers were activated in 1943 and flew the F4U Corsair. With that mighty aircraft they saw combat in the second World War, the Korean War. After the F4U, they flew the F9F Panther and Cougar, the F4J Fury, the last-gunfighter in the shape of the F-8 Crusader and later on with the F-4 Phantom II. The squadron flew missions over Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and most recent Operation Inherent Resolve.
Together with VMFA-314, 323 was the very first USMC Hornet squadron to deploy with CVWs. The Death Rattlers immediatly saw combat with the Hornet whenm operating from the USS Coral Sea (CV-43) in 1986, when they participated in Operations Prairie Fire and El Dorado Canyo against Libya.
With the return of VMFA-323, the baby Hornet will never see seaborne operations again as the US Navy already stopped operating the aircraft in April 2018 (Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 34 took that honour for the Sundown cruise).
Photo by US Navy Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Charles DeParlier, and Dan Stijovich (landing)