VMAT(AW)-202 Double Eagles

VMAT(AW)-202 "Double Eagles" · USMC · 1980-1986

Established 15 January 1968 at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, VMAT(AW)-202 was the Marine Corps' sole fleet replacement squadron for the Grumman A-6 Intruder, turning out every all-weather attack pilot and bombardier/navigator the Corps put in the cockpit. Alongside its A-6A and later A-6E aircraft the squadron flew the bulbous TC-4C Academe, a flying classroom whose Intruder radar and bombing systems let a whole class of B/Ns train at once. The twin-headed eagle of the patch — sword in one claw, thunderbolts in the other, worn here on a maroon field by GySgt R. White in the 1980s — is the crew itself: two heads, one aircraft, one attack. The Double Eagles stood down on 30 September 1986, and Marine Intruder crews finished their training in Navy schoolhouses thereafter.