| The Red Rippers began their long and colorful history as VF-5, established on February 1, 1927, at Hampton Roads, Virginia. Shortly thereafter, the squadron adopted the boar’s head insignia, which is based on the design used on bottles of Gordon’s gin. A faint outline of the Red Ripper boar’s head can be seen in the shock wave cloud surrounding the supersonic F-14D Tomcat in the painting 'Command Performance'. At the 1930 Chicago air races, a newspaper reporter asked the VF-5 pilots what their squadron nickname was. When heard the nickname, he determined that the readership wasn’t ready for such “vulgar” language and came up with the Red Ripper name; a name the squadron carries with pride. |
| After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Red Rippers, flying the F4F Wildcats, embarked on the USS Ranger (CV-4) to the Atlantic, shooting down eighteen enemy aircraft. In the summer of 1944, the squadron, now flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat, deployed to Pearl Harbor and later was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill. After World War II, the squadron entered the Korean War flying the F2H Banshee, and the squadron flew different versions of the Banshee until 1959. On February 16, 1959, the Red Rippers where redesignated VF-11 and began converting to the F8U Crusader. VF-11 traded in their F8U Crusader for the McDonnell Douglas F-4B Phantom II, and deployed aboard the USS Forrestal (CV-59) for Vietnam in June 1967. In July 1967, tragedy struck when the USS Forrestal experienced a catastrophic fire on the flight deck, forcing the ship to return early to the United States. |
