1940s VFA-32 was established as Bombing Fighting Three (VBF-3) on 1 February 1945, flying the
F6F Hellcat, when it was split off from
VF-3, the famed Felix squadron.
Fritz Wolf, a former member of the
American Volunteer Group (AVG) or
Flying Tigers, was assigned as the first VBF-3 commanding officer. At the time, U.S. Navy carriers were closing on the Japanese home islands and were facing aggressive
Kamikaze attacks. VBF-3 was assigned to Carrier Air Group THREE on board in the Pacific theater. On 16 February 1945, VBF-3 pilots became the Navy's first carrier-based pilots to strike the Japanese islands. During the heavy action on that day, the squadron shot down 24 Japanese aircraft, earning the
Presidential Unit Citation. Although the attempted rescue failed, Hudner received the
Medal of Honor and Brown received, posthumously, the
Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1974, VF-32 switched to the
F-14 Tomcat at
NAS Miramar before moving to NAS Oceana as one of the first fleet Tomcat squadrons based there. VF-32 made the first Atlantic Fleet F-14 deployment in June 1975. On that cruise, VF-32 was awarded the
Joseph Clifton Award as the Navy's top fighter squadron. VFA-32 and the rest of CVW-3 returned home on 4 June 2008. VFA-32 was awarded the
Battle Effectiveness Award for maintaining the highest state of battle readiness and sustained superior performance in February 2009. Throughout the 2010s, VFA-32 saw numerous deployments and conducted extensive combat operations in the Middle East with their F/A-18Fs. In October 2023, VFA-32 began a combat deployment within Air Wing Three onboard the USS
Dwight D Eisenhower. The deployment focused heavily within the CENTCOM AOR. For the majority of the deployment, VFA-32 operated from the Red Sea. Constant combat operations against Houthi-Iranian military units in Yemen and over the Red Sea occurred during the deployment. VFA-32 was heavily involved in defensive and offensive operations against Houthi-Iranian drones, as well as fixed and mobile targets. At some point in this deployment, which ended on July 14, 2024, a woman in VFA-32 became the first American female pilot to engage and kill an air-to-air contact.
Traditions == VF-32 Awards ==