VMGR-252 Blackout

VMGR-252 "Otis" (Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252) · USMC · 2020-present

This is the subdued "blackout" night-operations variant of the current VMGR-252 squadron insignia, adopted in its present form around 2020 and worn by Marines flying the KC-130J Super Hercules out of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. The quartered clock face — Roman numerals ringing a Pegasus, a chess knight, a star field, and a globe — frames a squadron whose tankers pass fuel to fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft day and night, in all weather, anywhere the Fleet Marine Force flies. Established 1 June 1928 as Headquarters Detachment 7M and the oldest continuously active squadron in the Marine Corps, "Otis" carries a night-flying pedigree it earned the hard way: in May 1990 a squadron crew made the first night-vision-goggle landing in a Marine Corps KC-130, months before six of its aircraft deployed as Detachment Alpha for Desert Shield. Muted greys and low-visibility green replace the squadron's black, silver, and red so the patch reads correctly under goggles and gives nothing away on a darkened flight line.