VF-33 (Starfighters): A United States Navy fighter squadron (the second to bear the VF-33 designation) established on 12 October 1948 at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, initially flying the F4U-4 Corsair as part of Carrier Air Group Three. Nicknamed the “Tarsiers” (with mascot “Minky”) from 1948 to 1958 and 1961 to 1981, renamed “Astronauts” in 1958 during the F11F Tiger era, and officially adopting “Starfighters” in 1987 based on its radio callsign with a new patch featuring a star and head-on Tomcat view. The squadron transitioned through aircraft including the F9F Cougar (1954), FJ-3 Fury (1955-1958), F11F Tiger (1958-1961), F-8 Crusader variants (1961-1964), F-4B and F-4J Phantom II (1964-1981), and F-14A Tomcat (1981-1993), basing primarily at NAS Oceana, Virginia. It saw combat in the Korean War (1950-1951 aboard USS Leyte, earning a Navy Unit Commendation), Vietnam War (1968 aboard USS America, dropping over 3 million pounds of ordnance, 4,000 combat hours, and downing a MiG-21 on 10 July for the first East Coast squadron air-to-air kill over North Vietnam), Operations Attain Document and El Dorado Canyon (1986, providing air cover against Libya including outmaneuvering MiG-25s and supporting strikes with 895 continuous sorties), and Operation Desert Storm (1991 aboard USS America, flying missions from both the Red Sea and Persian Gulf as one of only two Tomcat squadrons to do so). VF-33 was disestablished on 1 October 1993 due to post-Cold War reductions limiting TARPS-capable F-14 squadrons to one per air wing.
