VMFA-232 Red Devils

VMFA-232 "Red Devils" · USMC · 1967-1973

The Red Devils trace their lineage to 1925, when the squadron first painted a horned devil on the fabric flanks of its Vought VE-7SF biplanes at NAS San Diego — an emblem that survives today as the oldest continuously used insignia in Marine aviation, backed by the motto "The Devil made me do it." This diamond-and-tab patch carries the VMFA designation the squadron received on 8 September 1967, when it stood up on the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II at MCAS El Toro and repainted the devil on its new jets before deploying forward to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan. From there the Red Devils flew combat over Southeast Asia — Chu Lai in 1969, a no-notice redeployment to Da Nang in April 1972, then Nam Phong, Thailand — and were the last Marine fighter squadron to leave the theater in 1973. The chainstitched cotton construction is characteristic of patches embroidered in Japan and Okinawa for aircrews passing through Iwakuni in those years.