VFA-122

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Strike Fighter Squadron One Two Two
VFA-122 Insignia
Active	January 15, 1999 - Present
Country	United States
Branch	US Navy
Type	Fighter / Attack
Role	Introduce the Super Hornet to the fleet, train replacement personnel to fly and maintain the aircraft, and transition entire squadrons from "legacy" Hornets and Tomcats
Size	225 staff officers, 408 enlisted personnel, operate over 60 aircraft
Garrison/HQ	Naval Air Station Lemoore CA
Nickname	"Flying Eagles"
Equipment	F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet
Commanders
Current commander	Commander "Doc" Harris

Strike Fighter Squadron 122 (VFA-122), also known as the "Flying Eagles", are a United States Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet replacement squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Lemoore.

[edit] History

VFA-122 began as VC-35, a "composite" squadron composed of various models of the A-1 Skyraider on May 25, 1950 at NAS San Diego. VC-35's mission was to supply All-Weather Attack and Anti-Submarine Warfare detachments for carrier deployments and Pacific Fleet exercises. Their first detachment to deploy was VC-35 Detachment 3 and cruised to Korea between November 9, 1950 and June 9, 1951 and flew ASW patrols, night missions and other combat sorties.

VC-35 was designated Attack Squadron (All Weather)) 35 on July 1, 1956. Three years later VA(AW)-35's mission was changed to Fleet Replacement Training on June 29, 1959 and was redesignated Attack Squadron 122 (VA-122). They were known as the "Spad School", a component of Readiness Attack Carrier Air Wing 12 and trained pilots and maintenance technicians to support Fleet squadrons flying the A-1.

in 1963 the squadron moved to NAS Lemoore and transitioned to the A-7 Corsair which arrived in November 1966 and their name was changed to "Corsair College", two years and two monts later, the first VA-122 graduates commenced combat operations from the USS Ranger (CV-61) at Yankee Station.

In 1971 the Corsair College changed name to their current name, the Flying Eagles, and continued to train pilots and maintainers for anohter 20 years. In May 1991 VA-122 was decommissioned. But in January 1999 the squadron was brought back to life as Strike Fighter Squadron 122 (VFA-122)) and became the first squadron to operate the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Since 1999, the squadron have flown over 58,100 class "A" free flight hours and in 2006 they flew over 17,000 hours. The squadrons role remains the same, to train replacement aircrew and maintainers for combat operations. VFA-122 currently has 225 officers, 408 enlisted personnel and operates over 60 aircraft.

In November 2007, then-current CO Commander Thomas O'Dowd was relieved of his command after getting a DUI while on base.^[1]