Med Cruise 1965 — Sorry 'Bout That

VA-195 "Dambusters" · USN · 1965-1966

Attack Squadron 195 expected a Mediterranean cruise in 1965 — USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA-31) had been slated to swap deployments with the Norfolk-based USS Independence. The escalating war in Southeast Asia erased that plan, and both carriers ended up in the Gulf of Tonkin instead; the Dambusters sailed 21 April 1965 for a combat deployment that ran until 13 January 1966, flying A-4C Skyhawks with Carrier Air Wing 19. This cruise patch is the squadron's dry commentary on the change of orders: a canceled Med banner, the coast of Vietnam in gold, and a pair of Skyhawks working over a bridge, captioned with the Vietnam-era shrug "Sorry 'bout that." Over the next five years VA-195 would log more combat hours and sorties than any other squadron in CVW-19.