VFC-111 Squadron History

Navy Adversary Pilot Association

P.O. Box 1139 Severna Park MD 21146-8139

The “Sun Downers” have flown the F4F-4 Wildcat, F6F-3/5P Hellcat, F8F-1/2 Bearcat, F9F-2 Panther, F9F-6 Cougar, FJ-3 Fury, F-11 Tiger, F-8 Crusader, F-4 Phantom, F-14A Tomcat and now the F-5N Tiger II. Amongst a long history of exceptional operational performance, some notable accomplishments of the “Sun Downers” include an “ace in a day” during WWII, history’s first jet aerial kill during the Korean War, and a total of 169 aerial victories spanning World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Today, VFC-111 is charged with providing accurate representations of threat aircraft, tactics and weapon systems for fleet strike fighter pilots to oppose during Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) detachments, Strike Fighter Advanced Readiness Programs (SFARPS) and Air Wing detachments to NAS Key West, Florida.

The F-5 Tiger II is a single seat, light attack, supersonic fighter that was developed by Northrop in 1954 and saw duty in the Vietnam War. Its’ performance characteristics are very similar to a Mig-21 Fishbed, the most widely produced and exported supersonic jet aircraft in the world. Today, the F-5 is well suited as an aggressor aircraft and is currently used by the Navy Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) and US Navy and USMC Adversary Squadrons.

On 10 October, 1942, VF-11 was established in San Diego, California. On 15 November, 1946, the squadron was redesignated as VF-11A. On 15 July, 1948, the squadron was again redesignated as VF-111. On 19 January, 1959, VF-111 was disestablished and on 20 Jan 1959, VA-156 was redesignated as VF-111. On 31 March, 1995, VF-111, still based in San Diego, California, was disestablished once again. On 1 October, 2005 VFC-13 Detachment Key West was established and on 1 November, 2006 the detachment was redesignated as VFC-111. While the original unit lineage has not continued, the “Sun Downers” namesake and tradition of excellence has endured.