page_title: VMFA-333
section_title: 1950s
hierarchical_section_title: VMFA-333 / History / 1950s
caption_attribution_description: Three Vought F8U-2 (F-8C) Crusader fighters (BuNos 146942, 146945, 146957) of U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadron VMF-333 Fighting Shamrocks on the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CVA-59), ca. 1960.
context_page_description: Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 333 was a United States Marine Corps fighter squadron consisting of F/A-18 Hornets. Known as the "Fighting Shamrocks" and “Trip Trey”, the squadron participated in action during World War II, the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm The squadron’s aircraft were easily recognizable by the row of three shamrocks painted on the vertical stabilizers of their aircraft. They were decommissioned on 31 March 1992.
context_section_description: They were reactivated on 1 August 1952 as Marine Attack Squadron 333 (VMA-333) and located at Marine Corps Air Station Miami and equipped with the Grumman F6F Hellcat.  The Hellcats were quickly replaced with Corsairs and they were in turn replaced with A-1 Skyraiders. The Squadron was redesignated Marine Fighter Squadron 333 (VMF-333) on 28 January 1957 and again transitioned airframes, this time to the FJ Fury. At this time the squadron also relocated to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina.
  Three years later VMF-333 became the first Marine Corps squadron to receive the F-8 Crusader.
  On 14 August 1962, the squadron performed a non-stop air refuelled deployment to Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico and Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.  Of the 22 aircraft in the squadron 4 were initially stationed at Gitmo as armed Hot Pad Alert aircraft. The rest of the reinforced squadron (parts of Marine Air Base Squadron 32 and Headquarters and Maintenance Squadron 32 were attached) at Roosevelt Roads engaged in advanced tactics, gunnery and missile training while living in a tent city that served as a deployment test site.  The squadron was already in position when the Cuban Missile Crisis erupted in October 1962 and the aircraft numbers at Gitmo were reinforced should the need have arisen to strike targets in Cuba. During the crisis, VMF-333 was joined by Marine Attack Squadron 331 and assumed tactical command over the Puerto Rico Air National Guard's F-86 aircraft as a combined Puerto Rico Air Defense Command.  Trip Tree returned to MCAS Beaufort in December of that year after the crisis was resolved.
caption: Three F-8Cs of VMF-333 on the USS Forrestal, 1960.
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