VF-31 was officially established May 1943 and underwent unit training until August 1943, when it was attached to USS "Cabot". The ship had its shakedown cruise September – October 1943 before transiting the Panama Canal on 13 November 1943, headed for Pearl Harbor. Cabot arrived at Pearl on 27 November. By January "Cabot" was again in motion, now attached to Rear Admiral Alfred E. Montgomery's Task Group 58.2 as part of Marc Mitscher's Fast Carrier Task Force. Their first strikes, launched in January, would be the opening salvo of Operation Flintlock in the Marshall Islands campaign.