OUR MISSION

The Devil made me do it.

CALLSIGN Magazine is fired up to share that a new legacy project about the 100‑year‑old VMFA‑232 Red Devils is coming soon. We are interested in speaking with more former VMFA-232 Red Devil pilots, maintainers, and skippers to interview for this project—if you wore the patch and have stories from the aerial trenches, please reach out, and we’d be honored to speak with you.

Over the last six months, we had the rare privilege and honor of getting dragged straight into the Devils’ home—spending a full week with the squadron on the MCAS Miramar flight line documenting their pre‑deployment grind as they wrung aging Boeing legacy Hornets through launch/recovery cycles and last‑minute checks before heading out on WestPac. I split my time between the hangar, where dedicated young maintainers keep these 20‑plus‑year‑old jets alive; the ready room, where pilots bond, prank, and debrief; and the heritage room, where a century of Devils stare back from the walls.

From VE‑7 biplanes over China in 1925 to Dauntlesses clawing off Henderson Field at Guadalcanal…from Avengers hunting ships in the Pacific to Phantoms grinding through the Rose Garden in Vietnam…from Hornets screaming off Shaikh Isa into Iraqi flak in Desert Storm to close air support over Baghdad in OIF…from STOIC Hornets dropping danger‑close on firefights in Helmand to legacy jets hunting ISIS under a Middle Eastern night sky—the Red Devils’ greatest hits read like a century‑long combat mixtape.

Former skipper Gen. William “Spider” Nyland calls them “the Corps’ oldest, most decorated fighter squadron and… the proudest,” a unit that has “led the way” from Pearl Harbor to Guadalcanal and beyond. Lt. Col. Dan “Knuckles” Shipley talks about inheriting “a phenomenally strong reputation of being professional, being the top of their game,” and feeling the weight of “a squadron that's got such a tremendous legacy. ” Timothy “Little Buddy” Burchette remembers that as a new Devil, “you’re now the new guy breaking into their club,” learning songs, toasts, and traditions passed down from generation to generation.” And current CO Lt. Col. Steven “Barney” Suetos sums it up as a responsibility: “We are the keepers of the legacy. It’s our responsibility to uphold the standards… Marines, you know, their biggest fear is failure. It’s not the dangers of the job.”

Among the first to fight in the Pacific, the last Marine fighter squadron out of Vietnam, among the first Hornets crossing into Iraq during Desert Storm, and the first Marine Corps Hornet squadron land-based in Afghanistan—the Red Devils patch shows up whenever the fight gets ugly, and their brothers‑in‑arms on the ground need support.