USMC d VMFA 251 Fighter Squadron Patch F 4 Phantom US Marine Corps Aviation

US Marine Corps Aviation Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA 251 Patch early 1980s F 4 Phantom Thunderbolts Asian made Fully embroidered cut edge 102mm by 94mm four inches by three and eleven sixteenth inches.

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Marine Fighter Squadron VMF 251 Thunderbolts with its F 8 Crusaders was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group MAG 31 at MCAS Beaufort South Carolina in 1961 and in August and September 1961 deployed to Guantanamo Bay Cuba and to Jamaica during the time between the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Thunderbolts became the first Marine squadron in 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing to reequip with F 4 Phantom II aircraft on 31 October 1964 and was redesignated Marine Fighter Attack Squadron VMFA 251. Training exercises were conducted in Puerto Rico in 1964 1965 1971 and 1973. In April 1971 the squadron stood hot pad duty at NAS Key West Florida and provided additional support for the North American Air Defense Command NORAD. Further deployments in support of NATO were made to Cigili AB Turkey in 1973 and to Rota Spain in 1975 and the Squadron participated in a Western Pacific deployment to Japan Korea, and the Philippines during 1977 1978.

In September 1980 the Thunderbolts deployed to Trondheim Norway in support of NATO Exercises and to Keflavik Iceland in April 1982 where the Squadron intercepted six Soviet Bear Bombers while on hot pad alert. The squadron deployed to Denmark in September 1982 for NATO Exercise Northern Wedding 82 during which 102 Soviet aircraft flew sorties against NATO naval forces.

After twenty one years and 85000 flight hours VMFA 251 flew its last F 4S Phantom in November 1985. In January of the following 1986 the Thunderbolts transitioned to F/A-18 Hornet aircraft achieving combat ready status in March 1987.

This patch dates from early 1980s.