Hat ID

[Notanaviator]

Gents, came into possession recently of a bunch of neat older hats and ephemera from a naval aviator’s long and wide ranging career- ‘50s-early ‘90s maybe, retiring as a 2 star Admiral. This was one of the hats, but I can’t find anything matching this squadron

 

[exNavyOffRec]

Gents, came into possession recently of a bunch of neat older hats and ephemera from a naval aviator’s long and wide ranging career- ‘50s-early ‘90s maybe, retiring as a 2 star Admiral. This was one of the hats, but I can’t find anything matching this squadron

Look at this link/document on page 2 go down to NAS Dallas and look to the right.

https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/archives/command-operation-reports/aviation-squadron-command-operation-reports/vfc/vfc-13/pdf/1983.pdf

Maybe some others can put more pieces of the puzzle together.

 

[Mos]

Best I can find, VF-1170 was a reserve squadron based in NAS Dallas in the 70s through the 90s. Looks like it was an F-4 squadron, based on the patch in your picture, and a LinkedIn profile of a former CO of the squadron.

 

[Griz882]

The navy reserve had a lot of temporary squadrons to stash people. I have a feeling 1170 might have been where the F-4 guys from VF-201 and 202 hung out until they transitioned to the F-14.

 

[zipmartin]

The navy reserve had a lot of temporary squadrons to stash people. I have a feeling 1170 might have been where the F-4 guys from VF-201 and 202 hung out until they transitioned to the F-14.

Things have changed much through the years, and I'm not sure how it was at the time the pic was taken. At one time, there were SAU's, Squadron Augment Units, that were for paperwork purposes, entirely separate entities, but in reality, were part of the known reserve squadrons. The members of the SAU's would drill and fly with the known reserve squadrons, utilizing their assets, but for reporting purposes, were separate. This may have been the case with VF-1170, augmenting VF-201 and 202, like Griz said.

 

[wink]

Things have changed much through the years, and I'm not sure how it was at the time the pic was taken. At one time, there were SAU's, Squadron Augment Units, that were for paperwork purposes, entirely separate entities, but in reality, were part of the known reserve squadrons. The members of the SAU's would drill and fly with the known reserve squadrons, utilizing their assets, but for reporting purposes, were separate. This may have been the case with VF-1170, augmenting VF-201 and 202, like Griz said.

And to add to the above, the SAUs typically were designated in four numbers. Can't think of any active duty or SELRES hardware squadrons with four numbers.

SAU I flew in had it's own patch and acted like a regular squadron in most every way. We even used RAG aircraft to deploy independently with reserve CVW-30 to Fallon and Boat Dets since a RESFORON VS squadron did not exist to form up with the reserve airwing.

 

[Griz882]

Did a little more research. VF-1170 was, as @wink noted, an SAU created for support of East Coast F-4 mission to…” provide ground, simulator, and flight training for reserve aircrew…” It looks like they used jets and equipment from VF-14 and VF-32 and helped transition VF-701 and VF-703 from Crusaders to Phantoms (as well as other USNR units I’m sure). I think they were disbanded some time in ‘70/‘71.

Fun side note…I also came across an SAU…VF-1285…that had the same mission in the ‘80’s for Tomcat crews and they had the marvelous name of “Fighting FUBIJARS” meaning…Fuck You Buddy I’m Just A Reservist!

 

[ChuckMK23]

No more mysterious than VF-3.14!!!