Patrol Wing

A Patrol Wing (PatWing) was a United States Navy aviation unit with the commander of a Patrol Wing known as the Commodore, the ComPatWing or COMPATWING. All active Patrol Wings have since been redesignated as Patrol and Reconnaissance Wings, with the Commodore designated as COMPATRECONWING or ComPatReconWing.

Currently, there are three Patrol and Reconnaissance Wings in the U.S. Navy:

Patrol Wing Two was established at FAB Pearl Harbor on 1 October 1937. On 15 September 1942, FAW-2 was relocated to NAS Kaneohe Bay, where it remained until 1949. Redesignated Fleet Air Wing Two 1 Nov 1942 at NAS Kaneohe, Hawaii; On 30 June 1949, it was relocated to Barber's Point. Redesignated Patrol Wing 2 30 Jun 1973. Patrol Wing 2 was disestablished on 8 June 1993. Fleet Wing Two, redesignated as Commander, Patrol Wing Two, assumed operational control of the Barbers Point-based patrol squadrons when Fleet Air Hawaii decommissioned in 1973. After the disestablishment of Patrol Wing 2 on 8 June 1993, Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance Forces, US Pacific Fleet (formerly Commander, Patrol Wings, Pacific) commanded the line patrol squadrons.

Since the 1950s Barbers Point was most famous for its "Rainbow Fleet"—the patrol squadrons that routinely deployed with P-2 and later P-3 aircraft to the northern and western Pacific, Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. These squadrons tracked Soviet submarines patrolling off the western coast of the United States and supported operations in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and most recently the NATO air campaign over Kosovo. Of the squadrons present during the 1960s and 1970s, VP-28 was disestablished in the 1970s and VP-6, VP-17, and VP-22 were disestablished by the mid-1990s, leaving only VP-1 and VP-4. During the mid-1990s, however, two squadrons, VP-9 and VP-47, transferred to the Rainbow Fleet from NAS Moffett Field, Calif., when Moffett Field was disestablished as a USN installation and transferred to NASA and the California Air National Guard as a "Moffett Federal Airfield" via BRAC action. VP-1 later transferred to Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing 10 and relocated to NAS Whidbey Island, Wash. The Rainbow Fleet also was the home of Special Projects Patrol Squadron Two (VPU-2) since 1982.

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