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Codes that start with N are attached to Pacific Fleet Air Wings. Codes that start with A are assigned to the Atlantic. Then the second letter is specific to an Air Wing. For example, NE is CVW-2, assigned to the Pacific Fleet. AB is CVW 1, attached to the Atlantic Fleet.

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First letter A ... Atlantic based 

First letter N ... Pacific based

Second letter ... J  training   ex. NJ Super Hornet/Hornet/Corsairs at Lemoore, NJ at Whidbey on Intruders/Prowlers/TC-4C's etc.  

Other 2nd letters pick out air wings and carriers ... others may know the 'rules' a bit more. 

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http://z15.invisionfree.com/Hangar_Deck_Resource/index.php?showtopic=24

 

Scroll down to my third post. (I had to have this anyway to list my build list)

 

One warning,,,,,,A didn't always mean Atlantic,,,,,,,,,AH (CVW-16) was in the Pacific for most of their existance until they disbanded. And AA (CVW-17) was in the Pacific for a while, before being recoded with NA.

 

Also, even though assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, a huge amount of Air Wings were assigned to Pacific duty during the Vietnam conflict,,,,,and I suppose the Indian Ocean area of operations now.

 

The A and N really only mean/meant which command "owned" them, not where they served.

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"J" doesn't mean training OR unassigned.

 

AJ as CVW-8 was and is a very active full time front line Air Wing.

 

The J after the N is really just a hanger-on from the days when they were assigned to RCVW-12 (NJ)

 

added, by the way, there are far more "First Letters" in the USN code letter system than just the A or N,,,,,,at one time, before the system broke down and bases got closed,,,,all USN and USMC squadrons, whether deployable or not, had an East or a West tail code. I'd have to look up the split, but it was something A-M were East, and N-Z were West. But with USN squadrons carrying GD being on the West coast now, you can see that the system is mostly "just letters to identify them" now. At one time, you could really tell which side of the Mississippi a unit was "owned" by the tail codes. But, just like the squadron numbers, that has all broken down today.

Edited by Rex
added the other first letters
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8 hours ago, Rex said:

The A and N really only mean/meant which command "owned" them, not where they served.

 

Yes, NavAirLant or NavAirPac. Here at Lemoore, we have several squadrons tail coded A* and are attached to East Coast air wings. Whenever their respective CVW goes sailing, they fly to the east coast and go with them.

 

And, on the east coast, there is at least 1 west coast squadron that comes out here to fly with their Pacific CVW.

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1 hour ago, 82Whitey51 said:

Oh...and what about Patrol and Logistics squadrons and their assigned codes?! LK, PR, QE, YD, RY, JV, AX, JW...!

 

If it doesn't have a tail hook, who cares??  :p

 

Actually, I have seen a list of codes, on paper I think, that still shows ownership by location, for some units. For example, our SAR unit here is coded 7S, which is the code for Lemoore. I think this is a hold over from the late 40s or 50s designation system

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Spook, that is a hold over from the 60's, when the Reserves got all new Number+Letter codes, tied to their bases. At one time, they were tied to Reserve squadrons on a base. Then the codes got severed from the squadrons and applied to the bases. 7V meant Glenview NAS in the Sixties (Skyhawks were 5V before this), so you saw a P-2 and an A-4 with the same tail codes. Then when the Navy formed up into two fully deployable Reserve Air Wings, the Skyhawks got the AF tail code and new squadron designations to fit into the new Wing. Aircraft that remained tied to the base kept the 7V. This happened all over CONUS when AF and ND got assigned to Deployable Reserve Squadrons as unified Wings. (lots of photos of AF on the Kennedy, for example, making for some interesting modeling possibilities.)

 

Patrol, Transport, etc,,,,,,all "fit" into the East-West code system,,,,,,,,for about ten minutes or so, lol. Then they got mixed up just like the Air Wings and Marine squadrons did.

 

The Navy tried for a while to keep the system intact, redesignating squadrons that moved from Wing to Wing,,,,,but gave that idea up after only about a year of trying. Keeping it intact was why VMF-115 had AE for their code, but changed to VE when they moved to El Torro, CA and got Phantoms. This attempt is also why VF-111 with Crusaders  became VF-26 briefly, and why there were Phantoms with VF-116 on their fuselage before deploying as VF-213 (their original designation). Heck, attempting to "keep it clean" is why we know Showtime 100 as VF-96, they were VF-142 with a different wing when they first traded in their Crusaders for Phantoms, and were one of the squadrons that didn't revert when the Navy stopped trying to keep up with the moves.

 

We simply can't apply what codes we see today to the original system,,,,,,,it hasn't been "right" for 40 years.

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N was Pacific because it was the next letter after the Lant's M during the A-M and N-Z split.

 

And Andrew, not a shot at you, but the Reconn "P" was in the aircraft designator system, not the squadron and wing systems. "PP" was just a happy circumstance, the Atlantic squadron with the same mission was VFP-62, with "GA."

 

"AP" was an Atlantic Air Task Group, but "NP" was a Pacific Air Group (later, a Wing)

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oops, sorry Andrew, I misspoke.

 

Contrary to what I posted,,,,,"P" was very much a part of both the Squadron Designator and Mission Designator, and Aircraft Designator systems. VFP-1, 2 and 3, VAP, VMFP are examples from the old VC "and we had to know the number" system. That is the danger when one gets rambling on in answers to multiple posts. It is only a matter of time before I type a mistake,,,,making it look like "Rex doesn't know this at all." It is much easier to just write this stuff from scratch, catch typos in the proofread and fact checking stage, and post that up somewhere.

 

Oh, and for those that really want to be confused,,,,,,just wait until I publish the ATG Evolution and History book I am working on,,,,,,,,you talk about "tail code jumbling",,,,,the ATGs sure accomplished that.

Edited by Rex
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Just to confuse myself and others even more, I added the Air Group single codes to my collection. I will have about half of those built in the process of building one of each squadron, anyway. Might just as well build one of the ATG aircraft that used "B" at the same time that CVG-19 was using the "B" in a different ocean, eh?

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