VF82 'Buccaneers' logo

A bit of a small personal piece for you all.

This is the squadron logo for the VF82 "Buccaneers" Naval Fighter Squadron... Now for the history...

Formed in the latter half of the first World War, VF82 was initially created as a Fighter Attack Squadron (VFA). However, with the launch of the ISAN Midway, the ISA Navy found itself requiring another fighter intercept (VF) squadron instead of a Fighter Attack squadron. The Squadron first cut its teeth in the Maipin Islands campaign flying the new F9F Panther. Although technically a fighter squadron, VF82 was assigned to take out a Shenyian Air Base that was protecting the islands. Despite being largely filled with inexperienced pilots, VF82 was able to score an impressive kill tally of 15 aircraft shot down, and another 30 destroyed on the ground with atleast 10 more probables. The reason for this success was because of their leader, Lieutenant Commander Richard "Buck" Thompson, was already an accomplished ace with 8 kills to his credit. In training he would occasionally sneak up behind his rookie pilots and knock their hats off to try and teach them to always be on guard for attacks from behind. This paid off greatly, and allowed many of the new pilots to survive their first battle. After the campaign, VF82 would take part in four more campaigns, scoring a total of 43 more kills, creating 7 additional aces, and even 2 double aces.

After the war, VF82 was originally slated to be deactivated, but were spared the chopping block as they were one of the few squadrons that were born into jet aviation, and were filled with pilots who knew nothing but jets. Between the wars, VF82 transitioned several times to new aircraft, and were in the process of transitioning over to the F4 Phantom when the Second World War broke out. Because of this, VF82 was still operating the F8 Crusader II, and insisted on staying with the aircraft during the invasion. During the invasion, VF82 pilots were able to achieve a kill ratio of 12 to 1 despite being in older generation fighters. One captured Shenyian pilot noted that "Their aggression surpassed that of our leaders. These aircraft were clearly inferior to our own, but they attacked our bombers and escorts like a wild fire attacks a village." VF82 would score a total 56 fighter kills, 17 bomber kills, 4 helicopter kills, 1 tank kill, and even damaged a Shenyian Frigate.

Once the Shenyians were repelled from ISA shores, the squadron was put on a short leave to transition to a new fighter. Initially, the squadron commanders felt that the F8 Crusader II was an adequate fighter, and outright refused to transition to the F4 Phantom after reports of its failings in some dogfights. However, they were not being called to transition to the F4, they were being called to transition to the newer F14 Tomcat. VF82 would become the flagship squadron for the new aircraft, and on November 14th, 1979, Lieutenant Commander Cameron 'Fuz' Ryan personally accepted F-14 #140004 into the Squadron, with the first Squadron Commander riding in the rear seat.

'Buck' then said after arriving at Hope Point Naval Air Station "Boys, in my day the F6F Hellcat was the baddest bird in the sky. But I must humbly concede that after riding number two in this aircraft, that it is now the meanest mother fucker in the air."

Within six months of receiving the new aircraft, VF82 was once again back in combat, this time supporting the ISA counter offensive. The new F-14s performed better then expected, and during the initial fighter sweeps, VF82 downed 18 Shenyian fighters with no losses. This trend would continue for the remainder of the war for VF82.

After the Second World War, VF82 transitioned moved from the ISAN Midway to the ISAN New Phoenix, and would upgrade their F-14s with every new model.

For those of you who've not figured it out by now, The Buccaneers are based on the real life VF84/VFA103 Jolly Rogers. Whenever I actually finish the model of F14 I'm working on, it will be textured in the VF82 colors.

Like this design? You can get some cool stuff over on Red Bubble with this logo on it.
www.redbubble.com/people/tank5…