VMA-214 Black Sheep

Marine Attack Squadron 214 (VMA-214) "Black Sheep" · USMC · 1957-2022

Marine Attack Squadron 214 carried forward the name and heraldry earned in the South Pacific, where the squadron formed in July 1942 and, under Maj. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, flew F4U Corsairs against Rabaul. The insignia is deliberately disreputable: the heraldic bend sinister — the black bar of illegitimacy — recalls an outfit assembled from unattached "orphan" pilots and originally styled Boyington's Bastards, while twelve stars honor the founding cadre and the head-on Corsair crowning the shield marks the aircraft that made their name. Redesignated VMA-214 on 9 July 1957, the squadron flew A-4 Skyhawks from the expeditionary strips at Chu Lai in Vietnam, logging some 13,000 combat sorties, then AV-8B Harriers out of MCAS Yuma from 1989 onward. The attack designation was retired on 25 March 2022, when the Black Sheep became VMFA-214 and took up the F-35B.