VMAT-203 Hawks

VMAT-203 "Hawks" (Marine Attack Training Squadron 203) · USMC · 2000s

VMAT-203 was the Marine Corps' sole Fleet Replacement Squadron for the AV-8B Harrier II, flying from MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina under Marine Aircraft Group 14, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. Redesignated from a Skyhawk training unit in May 1972 and handed its first AV-8A in September 1974, the squadron taught every Marine Harrier pilot the black art of short takeoff and vertical landing, and trained aircrews from Britain, Spain, and Italy alongside them. This scarlet-and-gold roundel shows a Harrier climbing out of a night field of stars — a fitting badge for the "Hawks," whose radio callsign was MARS and whose tail code KD marked a generation of jets on the Cherry Point flight line. The squadron stood down on 29 October 2021 as the Corps completed its move to the F-35, its mission carried on by an AV-8B Fleet Replacement Detachment.