Fighter Squadron 84 or VF-84 was an aviation unit of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Originally established on 1 May 1944, it was disestablished on 8 October 1945. It was the first US Navy squadron to be designated as VF-84.

Operational history

VF-84 flew F4U Corsairs and was formed around a nucleus of veterans of VF-17, the ''Jolly Rogers''. The new squadron's commanding officer was Lt. Cdr. Roger R.Hedrick, former executive officer of VF-17. VF-84 was assigned to the , which was the former home of VF-17. As part of

Task Force 58 The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The task ...

, the carrier and Carrier Air Group 84 (CVG-84) participated in the final drive across the central Pacific. Roger Hedrick was promoted to head CVG-84 on the combat loss of the air group's commanding officer, and Lt. Cdr. Raymond "Ted" Hill took over the fighter squadron. VF-84 took part in the

invasion of Iwo Jima The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and United States Navy (USN) landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA ...

; raids on Tokyo and other targets in Japan; the discovery and sinking of the

Japanese battleship Yamato was the lead ship of her class of battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) shortly before World War II. She and her sister ship, , were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed, displacing nearly ...

and support of the invasion of Okinawa, including

combat air patrol Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...

over the invasion fleet to defend against

Kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending ...

attack, ground support, and combat air patrol over targets on Okinawa. On 11 May 1945, while off Okinawa, two Japanese kamikazes struck the ''Bunker Hill'' in quick succession, with a bomb penetrating to the pilots' ready room, killing 22 members of VF-84. Both the ''Bunker Hill'' (then the TF-58 flagship) and CAG-84 were knocked out of the war. Although VF-84 was reformed in July 1945 as an

F6F Hellcat The Grumman F6F Hellcat is an American carrier-based fighter aircraft of World War II. Designed to replace the earlier F4F Wildcat and to counter the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, it was the United States Navy's dominant fighter in the second ha ...

squadron, the war ended while it was still in training. While in the Pacific, VF-84 was credited with 92 kills for a loss of four aircraft and nine of the squadron's pilots became

aces ACeS (PT Asia Cellular Satellite) was a regional satellite telecommunications company based in Jakarta, Indonesia. It offered GSM-like satellite telephony services to Asian market. The coverage area included Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philip ...

.Tillman (1997)

References

Sources

* Irons, Martin. ''Corsair Down!''. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2022. * . * Privately published. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vf-84 Strike fighter squadrons of the United States Navy

Operational history

See also

References

Sources