Description
Officially Licensed USMC VMA-542 Tigers Sticker — From Hellcats to Harriers to Lightning
The Tigers have been bringing the heat since 1944 — and they’re still not done.
VMA-542 was commissioned as Marine Night Fighter Squadron 542 on March 6, 1944, at MCAS Cherry Point, flying F6F Hellcats into combat in the Caroline Islands before the war’s end. After reactivation, the Tigers became the second Marine squadron equipped with the AV-8A Harrier, pioneering V/STOL attack aviation for the Corps. In Desert Storm, they delivered more ordnance, flew more sorties, and logged more combat hours than any other V/STOL squadron in theater — over 1,000 combat sorties and more than 1,000 tons of ordnance across 42 days of sustained combat. The Tigers went on to introduce the Radar/Night Attack AV-8B Harrier II Plus to the fleet in 1993, trained the Marine Corps’ first radar Harrier pilots, and deployed with MEUs to Afghanistan, Libya in Operation Odyssey Dawn, and anti-ISIS operations. In December 2022, VMA-542 retired its Harriers and transitioned to the F-35B Lightning II, becoming the first east coast F-35B fleet squadron.
Perfect For: VMA-542 and VMFA-542 Marines, Harrier and F-35 pilots, Cherry Point and MAG-14 personnel, and anyone who respects a squadron with 80 years of tiger stripes.
From jump jets to stealth fighters — the Tigers always evolve.
Explore more from our collection.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.