VMAQ-2 Det Yankee 87-88 WestPac

Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 2 (VMAQ-2) "Playboys", Detachment Yankee · USMC · 1987-1988

Worn by the Marines of VMAQ-2's Detachment Yankee, this patch marks one of the six-month Western Pacific tours that kept EA-6B Prowlers forward-based at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan under the Unit Deployment Plan begun in 1980. From MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, the "Playboys" fed a continuous stream of lettered detachments — X-ray, Yankee, and Zulu — into the Pacific, where their ICAP Prowlers jammed hostile radars and hunted emitters for Marine and allied strike packages. The banner's roll call of Japan, Australia, and the Philippines traces the detachment's exercise circuit across the theater during the 1987-88 rotation. Detachment Yankee remained the core of VMAQ-2 when the parent squadron was split into three Prowler squadrons on 1 July 1992, and the black panther prowling this patch anticipates the "Panthers" title the squadron adopted the following year.