Description
Officially Licensed US Navy RVAH-11 Checkertails Squadron Sticker — Forged in the Fire on Forrestal’s Flight Deck
Three Vigilantes lost in a single day, a Presidential Unit Citation in combat, and nearly 24 years of service from the Cold War to Vietnam — the Checkertails lived through it all.
Reconnaissance Attack Squadron 11 — the Checkertails — was originally established as Composite Squadron Eight (VC-8) on 3 December 1951 at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, formed from personnel pooled from VC-5, VC-6, and VC-7 as the first squadron equipped with the AN/ASB-1 radar bombing system. Flying P2V-3C Neptunes and later the AJ-1 and AJ-2 Savage, VC-8 relocated to NAAS Sanford, Florida, and was redesignated Heavy Attack Squadron Eleven (VAH-11) on 1 November 1955. The “Checkertails” nickname was born when VAH-11 transitioned to the A-3B Skywarrior in November 1957, and the squadron quickly proved its mettle — during a Mediterranean deployment aboard USS Roosevelt, Checkertail flight crews earned 49 out of a possible 52 Navy “E” awards for bombing and navigation excellence. In April 1966, VAH-11 transitioned to the supersonic RA-5C Vigilante and was redesignated RVAH-11 in July 1966. The squadron’s first WESTPAC combat deployment would become one of the most harrowing chapters in Naval Aviation history: on 29 July 1967, while embarked aboard USS Forrestal en route to Vietnam, three of the Checkertails’ RA-5Cs were destroyed in the catastrophic Forrestal flight deck fire — one of the worst disasters in modern Navy history. Undeterred, RVAH-11 returned to combat aboard USS Kitty Hawk in 1968–1969, flying a record 518 combat reconnaissance sorties during the Pueblo crisis and becoming the first RVAH squadron to receive the Presidential Unit Citation. The squadron also earned the Navy Unit Commendation and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry for operations in Southeast Asia. The Checkertails continued Mediterranean deployments aboard USS Independence and USS Kennedy — including rapid-response operations during the 1970 Middle East crisis and the 1973 Yom Kippur War — before being disestablished at NAS Key West on 1 June 1975 after nearly 24 years of distinguished service.
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