VMCJ-3

VMCJ-3, Marine Composite Reconnaissance Squadron 3 · USMC · 1965-1975

Commissioned at MCAS El Toro in December 1955 from the merger of VMC-3 and VMJ-3, VMCJ-3 carried the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing's twin burdens of photo reconnaissance and electronic warfare in one squadron — a duality the patch states plainly, with a winged camera lens ringed by electron orbits above a red delta. The squadron took delivery of its first RF-4B Phantom II in 1965 and completed the transition the following year, serving as the West Coast pipeline that trained and fed reconnaissance and EF-10B Skyknight ECM cadres forward to VMCJ-1 at Da Nang throughout the Vietnam War, and adding the EA-6A Intruder in 1971. This patch was worn by GySgt R. White, USMC, across that full decade at El Toro. On 1 July 1975 VMCJ-3 was decommissioned and became the nucleus of VMFP-3, which consolidated every Marine RF-4B in the Corps at El Toro.