Hobby Master Archive

VMA-311 was formed on December 1, 1942 and took the name “Tomcats”. The squadron took part in WWII, Korea , Vietnam and all the actions in the Persian Gulf area since “Operation Desert Shield” in 1990. In March 2003 the “Tomcats” flew their first sortie as part of “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. VMA-311 was credited with flying over 550 sorties and dropping 77 tons of precision ordnance. The AV-8B II Harriers operated from the USS Bon Homme Richard and the USS Tarawa and were responsible for eliminating 132 Iraqi targets.