VMFA-122 Crusaders

VMFA-122 "Crusaders" (Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122) · USMC · 1957-2008

Commissioned as VMF-122 at Camp Kearny, California on 1 March 1942, the squadron flew F4F Wildcats and F4U Corsairs in the Solomons before taking the name "Crusaders" in December 1957 — a nod to the F8U Crusader it had just received at MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina. The heraldry followed the name: a medieval kite shield charged with a barbed crusader's cross, worn through the F-4 Phantom years (1965-1985) and into the F/A-18 Hornet era that began in 1986. This desert-tan, low-visibility embroidery is the flight-suit variant of that emblem, subdued for the sand and flight lines of the post-9/11 deployments. On 4 January 2008 the squadron retired both the name and the cross — a lieutenant colonel explained that "the notion of being a crusader in that part of the world doesn't float" — becoming the Werewolves, making patches like this one the last of their line.