VMA-131
military unit
Marine Attack Squadron 131 (VMA-131) was an A-4 Skyhawk attack squadron in the United States Marine Corps. The squadron, also known as the "Diamondbacks", were part of the Marine Forces Reserve and were based at Naval Air Station New York, Brooklyn, New York from 1960 through 1970 and NASJRB Willow Grove from 1971 until their deactivation in 1998.
History
Early years
The squadron was formed as the 1st Air Squadron in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in March 1919. They were redesignated VO-4M on 29 May 1922 and returned to Marine Corps Base Quantico in 1924. The squadron was again redesignated as VO-7M on 1 July 1927. Ten years later on 1 July 1937 the squadron again changed names, this time to Marine Scouting Squadron 1 (VMS-1). Exactly four years later saw a fifth name change to Marine Scout-Bomber Squadron 131 (VMSB-131).
World War II
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron was ordered to San Diego, California. After months of training, the squadron left San Francisco on September 6, 1942, on board the USS Mount Vernon heading for Marine Corps Air Station Ewa, Hawaii. On September 24, the squadron began transferring its SBD Dauntless Divebombers in exchange for Grumman TBF Avengers.
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This entry incorporates text from “VMA-131” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.