Red Devils Red Air

VMFA-232 "Red Devils" · USMC · 2015-2025

Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232 — the Red Devils, commissioned 1 September 1925 and the oldest continuously active fighter squadron in the Marine Corps — flies the F/A-18C Hornet from MCAS Miramar, and like every fleet fighter squadron takes its turn as the bad guys. This shoulder patch marks that turn: a Soviet red star, a silver Su-35 Flanker-E planform, and the squadron's own motto rendered in Cyrillic, "ДЬЯВОЛ ЗАСТАВИЛ МЕНЯ ЭТО СДЕЛАТЬ" — "The Devil Made Me Do It." Around the bottom runs "КРАСНЫЙ ДЬЯВОЛ · КРАСНЫЙ АВИАЦИЯ," Red Devil, Red Air, the aircrew joke doing double duty: the squadron nickname is already red, so the adversary role required no change of costume. Red air sorties like these are how a Hornet squadron builds the threat picture for the rest of the air wing, presenting a fourth-plus-generation Russian fighter to Marines who may one day meet the real thing.