238th Marine Corps Birthday — Bengals

VMFA(AW)-224 "Fighting Bengals" · USMC · 2013

Struck for the Marine Corps' 238th birthday on 10 November 2013, this patch marks the annual ball at which Marines honor the Corps' founding at Tun Tavern in 1775 — a tradition formalized by Gen. John A. Lejeune's Marine Corps Order No. 47 in 1921. The snarling Bengal tiger and striped shield belong to VMFA(AW)-224, commissioned 1 May 1942 at MCAS Ewa and blooded over Guadalcanal with the Cactus Air Force, where the squadron downed more than sixty Japanese aircraft in under two months under Medal of Honor recipient Maj. Robert Galer. By 2013 the Bengals were flying the two-seat F/A-18D Hornet from MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina, under MAG-31, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing — the last Hornet squadron of its kind on that field. Within months of cutting the birthday cake they were forward-deployed to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, returning to Beaufort in July 2014.