Squadron crews also participated in Yankee Station patrols off of Vietnam during anti-filtration, and open ocean surveillance flights, as well as night radar coverage of the Gulf of Tonkin, in defense of USN aircraft carriers. In June 1966, VP-5 transitioned to the Lockheed P-3A Orion, and consistently prosecuted frontline Soviet submarines in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Patrols from Jacksonville, Roosevelt Roads, and Guantanamo Bay tracked the lead Soviet ship bound to Cuba in advance of contact with United States Navy (USN) surface forces. Kennedy’s quarantine of Cuba in October 1962. VP-5 was one of the first, and most critical units, to support President John F. In 2004, the Navy accomplished a daunting recovery of remains, and memorialized the crew at the crash site, fulfilling a dream of many active duty, and retired MPA Sailors. On January 12, 1962, the squadron endured a terrible tragedy during an ice patrol mission along the Greenland coast, when an aircraft crashed into the Kronborg Glacier and killed Executive Officer Cmdr. Alan Shepard, Jr., and later in the recovery of Capt. VP-5 made its mark on space history in May 1961 when it aided the post-mission seaborne recovery of Cmdr. Throughout the Cold War, deployments focused on ASW, and anti-surface warfare against Soviet, and Soviet-aligned, forces. The Mad Foxes moved to Jacksonville, Florida in December 1949. The technology to detect submerged submarines through non-acoustic means facilitated a major capability leap in anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and manifested itself not only in squadron operations, but also in the evolution of the squadron name and patch.ĭesignated as VP-5 in December 1948, the squadron became known as the “Mad Foxes” and changed the patch to depict a fox casually preparing to strike a submarine with a sledgehammer. In 1948, the squadron transitioned to the Lockheed P2V Neptune, equipped with magnetic anomaly detection equipment capable of detecting large, magnetic objects underwater. Re-designated as VP-135, and then to Medium Patrol Squadron 5, the Blind Foxes relocated again in January 1947 to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico under operational control of Commander, Fleet Air Wing 11. Peacetime brought significant force structure changes, and in 1945, the Navy Department moved the squadron to Edenton, North Carolina, and then to Quonset Point, Rhode Island. In 1944, the squadron shifted to Attu Island to support photo-reconnaissance efforts aimed at unveiling Japanese activity in the Kurile Islands. In August 1943, the Blind Foxes joined sister squadrons in bombing Kiska Harbor during the “Kiska Blitz”, hastening the Japanese abandonment of the island and avoiding a costly amphibious assault. It is during this latest designation that they were nicknamed the “Blind Fox” squadron to reflect the squadron’s method of flying “blind” through heavy weather, and were depicted by a blindfolded fox, riding a flying gas tank, carrying a bomb and cane.ĭuring World War II, the squadron directly contributed to some of the earliest allied victories in the Pacific theater. During a dynamic few years, VP-17 transitioned to the PBY-2 in 1938, changed designation to VP-42 in 1939, accepted the amphibious-capable PBY-5A in 1942, and once again changed designation, this time to Bombing Squadron 135 (VB-135) at Whidbey Island, Washington in February 1943. The first squadron patch depicted a seal balancing a bomb on its nose to represent operations in Alaska, and Pacific Northwest sites. From ocean to ocean, the Sailors and aviators who have comprised this squadron’s roll call have helped build a record of Maritime Patrol Aviation (MPA) warfighting excellence, and extraordinary professional achievement and service.Ĭommissioned in 1937, and initially designated as VP-17, the Navy’s second oldest VP squadron flew and maintained the PM-1 Seaplane. For more than eight decades, the command now recognized as Patrol Squadron 5 (VP-5) has served the cause of freedom.
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