Hey all,
Just wondering what the best way to find out which squadrons were deployed together at the same time. I’m looking to build a 1/72 modern naval aviation diorama and wanted to get the bird markings right. Thanks!
Mike
Mike, it really depends on what aircraft/squadron you are building or trying to depict. I subscribe to quite a few magazines & have many books but Google is still a good friend - along with my internet friends! [;)]
Best way to make sure you get the same squadrons together is doing a search for Carrier Air Group. You can search for “CAG” as well, but that is normally construed as Commander, Air Group.
A Carrier Air Group (CVW) generally operates from the same carrier during a deployment (including work-ups, etc). Even numbered CAGs are on the East Coast, odd on the West Coast. CVW-5 is the permanent forward deployed group in Japan. Used to include VF-154, etc. With the Super Hornet taking over for the F-14, most squadrons are reorganizing, and the overall structure of a CVW is much different from even a few years ago when I was still “haze gray and underway”.
Google up “CVW-5” or check out the Navy’s website. Most of the CVBGs (Carrier Battle Groups) will list the current Air Wing associated with the Carrier.
Here is a link to CVW-5. On the right sidebar it lists the current squadrons. A quick search of the history will show other squadrons attached and the times they were with CVW-5.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/cvw5.htm
Hope this helps.
Stickman,
This is an incorrect statement; “Even numbered CAGs are on the East Coast, odd on the West Coast”. I was in CAG-7 and CAG-17 and we were east coast, also, CAG-14 is west coast. The number doesn’t mean which coast they are on.
The way to tell if a squadron or CAG is east or west coast is by the tail code. If the tail code starts with an “A”, for example AG, it’s a east coast CAG. If is starts with a N, such as NF, it’s a west coast CAG. If it starts with anything else it’s not assigned to a CAG and Carrier. This took effect back in the early 70’s so squadron’s dating back earlier than that may not have used the CAG’s tail codes. Some example of squdrons not using the CAGs tail codes would be the A3D, A-5/RA-5 and RF-8 squadrons assigned to CAGs as dets, they would keep their squadron tail codes.
Respectfull,
Reddog