Crusader WestPac '16 — Hornet Sundown

VMFA-122 "Crusaders" · USMC · 2016

Worn on the shoulder during VMFA-122's 2016 Unit Deployment Program rotation to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, this patch marks the Crusaders' last WestPac as a Hornet squadron. Ten F/A-18C(N)s flew west from MCAS Beaufort in March 2016 and came home that July, closing out three decades of Marine Hornet operations the squadron had begun when it accepted its first F/A-18A in January 1986. The rising sun and the phrase "Hornet Sundown" were no idle flourish — in November 2017 the squadron stood down at Beaufort, moved to MCAS Yuma, and traded the Hornet for the F-35B Lightning II.