Product Details

9" x 12" Modern Aircraft Carrier Deck section for displaying 1:72 Scale Naval Aircraft. Features VF-31 Tomcatters patch in upper-left corner.

US Navy Fighter Squadron 31 (VF-31) Tomcatters was the new designation given to VF-3A on August 7th, 1948. The squadron transitioned from the F6F Hellcat through the F9F Panther, F2H Banshee, F3H Demon and F-4 Phantom II before upgrading to the F-14 Tomcat in 1981. The Tomcatters deployed several times with the F-14 on various Nimitz Class carriers. They deployed with the F-14 for the last time aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2005 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was during this deployment that VF-31 became the last F-14 squadron to drop a bomb in combat. The squadron returned home in 2006 and and transitioned to the F/A-18E Super Hornet, being redesignated Strike Fighter Squadron 31 (VFA-31).