VMCJ-1 Golden Hawks

Marine Composite Reconnaissance Squadron 1 (VMCJ-1) "Golden Hawks" · USMC · 1958-1975

Commissioned at MCAS El Toro on 31 July 1958 from the merger of VMJ-1 and VMC-1, VMCJ-1 flew both halves of the Marine reconnaissance mission — the camera and the jammer — earning the squadron its billing as the eyes and ears of the Marine Aircraft Wing. Its EF-10B Skyknights flew the first Marine combat mission using active radar jamming on 29 April 1965, and from Da Nang the squadron logged over 25,000 sorties with RF-8A Crusaders, RF-4B Phantoms, and EA-6A Electric Intruders before rotating home in 1970. It returned for the Linebacker campaigns and flew the last EA-6A mission over Vietnam on 30 April 1975, off USS Coral Sea during the evacuation of Saigon. The eagle on this patch carries a camera in one talon and hurls lightning from the other; VMCJ-1 was decommissioned on 2 September 1975, its assets split between VMFP-3 and VMAQ-2.