Description
VS-24 Scouts S-2F Tracker (1965) model
Fly off the USS Intrepid again in this carefully crafted S-2F Tracker model with the VS-24 Scouts with a Duty Cat silver medallion on the base – a perfect display to capture your time with this great squadron! Each model is solid wood and hand painted to provide a piece of exceptional quality.
Wingspan is 18 inches.
he “Scouts” of VS-24 were disestablished during a ceremony 10 March 2007 at Hangar 116. The ceremony ended 47 years of service as an Atlantic fleet carrier-based antisubmarine warfare squadron (ASW). VS-24 was the first S-3 squadron to move to NAS Jacksonville in 1997 when NAS Cecil Field closed. The squadron has been in Jacksonville the past 34 years.
Since their move to NAS Jacksonville, the Scouts have deployed five times with their last deployment in March 2006 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The squadron officially deactivated March 31, 2007.
VS-24 has an eclectic yet distinguished two part history that dates back to Bombing Squadron 17 (VB-17) which was established Jan. 1, 1943. Embarked aboard USS Bunker Hill (CVS-17) and USS Hornet (CVS-12), VB-17 flew the Curtiss SB2C-1 Helldiver into combat throughout World War II. VB-17 was re-designated VA-5B Nov. 15, 1946 and then VA-64 April 27, 1948. Less than a year later on April 8, 1949, the squadron traded their Douglas AD-1 Skyraiders for less glamorous Grumman TBM-3/3W/3S Avengers and was redesignated VC-24 when their mission changed to ASW. The squadron became VS-24 on April 20, 1950 when it transitioned to the Grumman AF-2W/2S Guardian followed shortly thereafter by the Grumman S2F-1/2 Tracker. After participating in numerous ASW exercises conducted off small deck CVE’s, CVL’s and straight deck Essex-class carriers the squadron deactivated on July 1, 1956.
Congress resurrected VS-24 on May 25, 1960 when it divided VS-27 into two squadrons. These two squadrons along with HS-3 and a detachment from VAW-12, formed the newly established CVSG-56. The Scouts spent the next 13 years assigned to CVSG-56 and deployed aboard USS Valley Forge (CVS-45), USS Essex (CVS-9), USS Randolph (CVS-15), USS Yorktown (CVS-10) and USS Intrepid (CVS-11). During the CVS years VS-24 honed its ASW skills during day and night all-weather operations in the Caribbean, Atlantic and Mediterranean flying the S2F, S-2E and S-2G models of the Tracker, keeping tabs on U.S., allied and Soviet submarines.
Before its transition to the S-3A, VS-24 made a couple of lasting achievements in the ASW community. In May 1973, the Scouts returned from the last East Coast CVSG/CVS deployment aboard Intrepid. That summer VS-24 along with all of the Atlantic Fleet VS squadrons bid farewell to NAS Quonset Point, R.I. and headed to NAS Cecil Field. A year later, the squadron embarked on the last Atlantic S-2G deployment with CVW-3 aboard USS Saratoga (CV-60) from September 1974 to March 1975, closing one chapter and beginning another in the squadron’s long and distinguished history.
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