Description
Officially Licensed US Navy RVAH-7 Peacemakers Squadron Sticker — The Last Vigilante Squadron Standing
Every other RVAH squadron went home. The Peacemakers stayed until the lights went out.
Reconnaissance Attack Squadron 7 — the Peacemakers of the Fleet — began life as Composite Squadron 7 (VC-7) at NAS Moffett Field, California on 10 August 1950, initially equipped with the AJ-1 Savage for the Cold War’s most dangerous mission: carrier-based nuclear strike against Soviet strategic targets. After relocating to NAS Patuxent River and then NAS Sanford, Florida, the squadron was redesignated Heavy Attack Squadron 7 (VAH-7) in 1955 and transitioned through the A-3 Skywarrior before becoming one of the first squadrons to operate the North American A-5A Vigilante — the Navy’s Mach 2 supersonic nuclear bomber. When the Navy abandoned the carrier-based nuclear strike mission in favor of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the Vigilante was reconfigured as the RA-5C reconnaissance platform, and VAH-7 was redesignated RVAH-7 on 1 December 1964. The Peacemakers deployed repeatedly to Vietnam aboard USS Enterprise, flying pre- and post-strike reconnaissance missions over some of the most heavily defended airspace in history. The RA-5C suffered the highest loss rate of any U.S. Navy aircraft in Vietnam, and the crews who flew it knew the odds every time they launched. As budget pressures and airframe attrition forced the Navy to sunset the RVAH community beginning in the mid-1970s, RVAH-7 outlasted them all — the last Fleet RVAH squadron to operate the RA-5C and the last to deploy with it overseas. On 28 September 1979, after nearly 29 years of active service, the Peacemakers were disestablished at NAS Key West, closing the final chapter of the Vigilante era forever.
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