VR-62

VR-62 provides Navy Unique Fleet Essential Airlift (NUFEA), a capability totally resident in the Naval Air Force Reserve, comprising 24 C-130T Hercules aircraft in five squadrons and 17 Boeing C-40A Clipper aircraft in an additional six squadrons for responsive, flexible and rapidly deployable air logistics support to combat operations at sea and from the sea. The C-130T fills the U.S. Navy's airlift requirements for outside cargo and, prior to the introduction of the Bell Boeing CMV-22B Osprey, was the only U.S. Navy aircraft capable of internally lifting all modules of the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine for the Lockheed Martin F-3B Lightning II STOVL variant strike fighter flown by the U.S. Marine Corps from WASP class and AMERICA class amphibious assault ships and the F-35C CATOBAR variant strike fighter flown by both the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps from NIMITZ class and GERALD R. FORD class aircraft carriers. ==History==

VR-62 was established on 1 July 1985 at then-Naval Air Facility Detroit, a tenant activity at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan under the operational control of Commander, Fleet Logistics Support Wing at then-Naval Air Station Dallas, Texas. In February 1988, the squadron began providing logistics support flights operating the McDonnell Douglas C-9B Skytrain II aircraft, adopting the squadron nickname of Motowners in view of their proximity to Detroit. Following nine years of outstanding worldwide airlift service to the fleet from the home station at NAF Detroit, the 1991 BRAC Commission directed the realignment of NAF Detroit as Naval Air Reserve Center Detroit (NAVAIRESCEN Detroit) and the inactivation or transfer of all Naval Reserve aviation squadrons based there. As part of this BRAC decision, the VR-62 Motowners were ordered to change their homeport and transition from the C-9B to the C-130T Hercules aircraft. In 1994, the squadron changed its homeport from NAF Detroit to Naval Air Station South Weymouth, Massachusetts, and adopted a new nickname of Mass Transport, acknowledging their new home station in Massachusetts. VR-62 retired its C-9B aircraft and received their first of four C-130T aircraft in January 1995. Following several months of rigorous transition training, VR-62 began its operational commitments with the C-130T, sending squadron detachments to Sicily, Japan and Bahrain in support of worldwide naval operations. ==See also==