VFA-242

Official Insignia of VFA-242 "Flying Foxes"

**Strike Fighter Squadron 242 (VFA-242)**, also known as the ***Red Foxes*** or ***Flying Foxes*** and under the callsign or “Red,” is a United States Navy strike fighter squadron flying the F/A-18E Super Hornet. The *Flying Foxes* are known because of two things; being among the first squadrons to receive the F/A-18 Hornet and being made up of pilots who were red foxes.

Within the *Foxtrot: Foxes in Arms* series, VFA-242 is under the direct command of Captain Justin Redding, who is also the squad's flight leader. The squad would go on to see the front lines of the Urocyan Wars, and would also get much notoriety for the pilot's valorous actions on the front lines. The squad's main base at sea is the carrier USS *Theodore Roosevelt* (CVN-71).

## History

### Formation

VFA-242 was formed in early March of 1983 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States. The first batch of pilots were trained under another squadron and was among the first to receive the then brand new McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet multirole jet fighter. At the time of its creation, VFA-242 was attached to Carrier Air Wing 3 (CVW-3).

Within the squad's early days, something became immediately apparent about the squad's make up. All of the pilots and most of the other supporting crew within the squad was made up almost exclusively of foxes, whether they have red fur or not. That led to the squadron being nicknamed "*Red Foxes*" by pilots from other Navy squadrons, and though it wasn't looked up to, the name would eventually stick. However, the pilots would end up changing the name to "*Flying Foxes*" as that matched their nature very well.

### Combat Outings

The *Flying Foxes* first saw combat over the country of Libya, mostly air-to-ground operations including the bombings within Libya in 1986. Some time later, the squad would be sent to the Mediterranean Sea an a no-notice deployment. VFA-242 aircraft in assistance with bombing raids on enemy positions such as bunkers, command and control centers, and radar stations. And while enemy aircraft did pose a threat to the squadron, they never directly engaged enemy air forces over hostile territory. Surface-to-air missile (SAM) launchers posed the main threat, and during the conflict, an aircraft was damaged after taking a hit from a SAM site. Upon exiting the combat zone, the aircraft was forced to ditch into the Gulf with the pilot safely ejecting and later rescued.

Within a few short weeks, the Coalition managed to gain air superiority over the enemy, with VFA-242 having contributed quite a bit after going through all that. Following the end of this war, the squad would continue to fly combat sorties from the Med from a pair of carriers, one of them being the USS *Theodore Roosevelt* (CVN-71) over several deployments to the region. Within the coming deployments, pilots came an went, though upon a deployment from the carrier USS *Enterprise* (CVN-65) would see all the current members of the squad officially coming together in one way or another.

The 21st Century would see the squad taking part in both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom at the start of the Iraq War. VFA-242 was deployed back to Iraq as a part of CVW-3 for the final time. With the rest of CVW-3, VFA-242 conducted Response Options strikes, to include the largest strike over Iraq since Operation Desert Fox, in support of Operation Southern Watch and maritime interdiction operations, returning home on 23 May 2001. Following the end of this deployment, the *Flying Foxes* transferred from Carrier Air Wing 3 in the Atlantic over to Carrier Air Wing 11 in the Pacific. Its HQ was thus changed from NAS Oceana in Virginia to NAS Lemoore in California (also changing the planes' tail codes from AC to NH). Future deployments in the Pacific saw the squad coupled with other carriers for numerous exercises throughout the West and South Pacific.

### Prelude to War

As the years went by, the squad would see more and more deployments with the USS *Nimitz* (CVN-68) in anti-terrorist operations, but it would be due to a sudden military buildup that pushed everyone in the military to be at a heightened sense of awareness and readiness. Around this time, a rather young pilot by the name of Justin Redding had been added to VFA-242's ranks as one of the newest pilots of the squad. By 2019, VFA-242 was still operating against terrorist organizations when a new threat provided by the country of Urocyia began to materialize that posed a real danger to American national security. This meant more deployments, and surprisingly, more action for the pilots. Just before the beginning of this new conflict, Justin, quickly becoming a Commander, took over as the active flight leader for the squadron leading the *Flying Foxes*, with Felix Radcliff becoming the second in command.

In the late 2010s, they were sent with the *Nimitz* to destroy a stronghold under use from Urociya, which was conducting many hostile military actions within the region. Among the naval task force was the recommissioned *Iowa*-class battleship USS *Missouri*. VFA-242 provided Close Air Support (CAP) sorties throughout the entire engagement. In particular, Justin distinguished himself by successfully striking more targets than most of the other pilots. This would officially earn him the nickname of "Red Wind," which many enemy ground positions referred to him as whenever they saw his aircraft fly passed. Though no official war was declared, military action like this only seemed to increase as days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months, and so on.

Though the biggest action the foxy pilots of VFA-242 would come within the waning months of 2020, where an event so shocking would start a way on a scale not seen since the Second World War.

### Urocyan War

In 2020, VFA-242 was to embark in a training exercise as a part of CVW-11 aboard the *Theodore Roosevelt*. However, before they or the rest of the fleet could embark on this exercise, a Urocyan surprise attack on the port began, catching the Americans off guard. Justin and the rest of his squad scrambled as fast as they could to get airborne to deal with the threat. Justin was the first to take off in the emergency, followed by Felix. Lieutenant Commanders Shirley "Dynamo" Yeager and Autumn "Ax" Rowan were quick to follow, with Lieutenants Ash "In Luv" Russell and Scout "Angel" Linwood taking up the rear. The six pilots did their best to repel as many of the enemy as possible, and were among the only squadrons up in the air that were any sort of organized, as many planes were going up on their own to fight back. VFA-242 is officially credited with downing credited with downing three planes in the assault, with Justin knocking down a strike fighter, Felix getting another one, and Autumn facing an air superiority fighter. Shirley allegedly managed a "maneuver kill" against an enemy fighter, and this counts as a probable, but unconfirmed. Thankfully, they all came out of it with little to no damage to their jets, and while they did their best to lessen the damage, VFA-242's pilots couldn't stop all of the enemy aircraft from coming through. Dozens of ships and aircraft were lost in the attack, and many lives were lost, but many more were saved thanks to the efforts of VFA-242, as well as the likes of some other naval officers, like one battleship captain, from the ships either outside or still in the port.

It would take some time to recover from those attacks, but Justin and his fellow pilots did their best to get themselves ready for subsequent deployments. They carried out some retaliatory strikes with the rest of CVW-11, which were varied in terms of success, but with the formation of Battle Group Foxtrot, or the "Vanguard Fleet," it was unlikely that Justin, Felix, Shirley, Autumn, Ash, or Scout at the time, would give up, and they kept fighting. And since the formation of the new fleet, the group has since changed back to being based in Virginia as opposed to California.

## Roster (As of 2020)

* Captain Justin F. "Red Wind" Redding (Red Leader)
* Commander Felix "Longshot" Radcliff (Red 2)
* Lieutenant Commander Shirley "Dynamo" Yeager (Red 3)
* Lieutenant Commander Autumn "Ax" Rowan (Red 4)
* Lieutenant Ash "In Luv" Russell (Red 5)
* Lieutenant Scout "Angel" Linwood (Red 6) †

## Individual Aircraft Numbers

The numbers of each pilot's plane is listed here.

* Justin- 411
* Felix - 412
* Shirley - 413
* Autumn - 414
* Ash - 415
* Scout - 416 †

## Trivia

* Navy squadron VFA-242 may be fictional, but many of its historical background comes from actual events.
	+ In fact, the squad shares its number with VMFA-242, a Marine Corps fighter squadron nicknamed the "Bats."
	+ Many aspects of the squad's history is based on VFA-131, also known as the "Wildcats."
	+ The High-Visibility livery the squad uses is similar to the real-life VFA-147 "Argonauts" prior to this squad transitioning to the F-35C.
* The whole idea of this squadron stemmed from the idea of Justin not just being a fighter pilot, but also the leader of his own squad.
	+ While Arthur and Sewell command either real ships or real flotillas (destroyer squadrons), Justin, along with Vienna are given command of fictional military units within their respective branches.
* While the squadron call signs are not realistic, they are a reference to the *Star Wars* movies, specifically the first film, lately listed as *Episode IV: A New Hope.*
* In an original writeup for the series, the squadron was still operating the legacy F/A-18 Hornet, specifically the F/A-18C, with the switch to the F/A-18 Super Hornet not planned until later. Had this continued on, VFA-242 would've maintained the title as the last and only active service operator of the legacy Hornet in the United States Navy.
	+ Side note: this may not have been 100% accurate as the series progressed, as the Navy pulled more legacy Hornets out of mothballs to supplement losses during the war.