VMA-542 Tigers

VMA-542 "Tigers" (Marine Attack Squadron 542) · USMC · 1972-2000s

Marine Attack Squadron 542, the "Tigers," traces its lineage to a World War II night-fighter squadron that flew F6F Hellcats against the enemy in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. Reactivated at MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina on 12 January 1972 as VMA-542, the Tigers became only the second Marine squadron to fly the AV-8 Harrier, mastering vertical/short takeoff attack operations they would later carry into Operation Desert Storm and Iraq. The snarling tiger's head, framed by an orange lightning bolt, has marked the squadron's aircraft through decades of Harrier service before its 2022 transition to the F-35B Lightning II.