VF-301

VF-301 Fighter Squadron 301 was an aviation unit of the United States Naval Reserve in service from 1970 to 1994. The squadron's nickname was Devil's Disciples.

History
VF-301 was activated on 1 October 1970 and assigned to Reserve Carrier Air Wing 30 (CVWR-30) (tail code "ND") at Naval Air Station Miramar, California (USA). The squadron first flew the Vought F-8L Crusader and four years later transitioned to the McDonnell F-4B Phantom II. Their time with the B-models was short and VF-301 soon received the F-4N in February 1975. In 1980, VF-301 received the most advanced F-4 variant in the U.S. Navy, the F-4S. In October 1984 the unit transitioned to the Grumman F-14A Tomcat. The squadron made its first deployment with the F-14A on 21 April 1985, with five aircraft visiting MCAS Yuma for air-to-air training against U.S. Marine Corps IAI F-21A Kfir fighters. At this time the squadron was still transitioning to the F-14 and it was not until 4 August the same year the entire squadron was able to deploy to NAS Fallon for training.

The Devil's Disciples first carrier landings were on board the USS Ranger (CVA-61). Further carrier training was limited but did include time on board the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) between 10 and 22 August 1988. Later in its life the squadron became the first Reserve squadron to drop air-to-ground ordnance, in the shape of Mk 84 bombs and Mk 20 cluster munitions.



After 24 years of service VF-301 was disestablished on 11 September 1994, the same time as VF-302. The rest of the reserve air wing, CVWR-30, was soon to follow. During these 24 years VF-301 had acquired an outstanding safety record, flying 71322.4 hours without a class A mishap, setting a new record for Navy jet squadrons.