A BIT OF HISTORY: "...VR-7 History..." http://navymats.com/VR-7.html [01JUN2002]

VR-7 was originally established in April 1943 under command of the Naval Air Transport Service at NAS Miami FL to engage in the airlift of priority cargo and personnel between the U.S. and South America. The aircraft assigned was the Douglas R4D. Dis-established in 1944, the squadron was re-born in Nov. 1946 with the integration of personel from VR-10, again utilizing the R4D. There it performed as a Headquarters squadron on Guam Island with detachments in Manila Philippines, Shanghai China, Iwo Jima Island and finally Tokyo Japan following the Japanese surrender. It was then dis-estblished in 1948

In response to increasing military requirements for airlift support in the Pacific, VR-7 attained its third life at Hickam AFB Hawaii with Capt. S.M. Adams commanding, under the direction of Commander Pacific Division of MATS. Its core of experienced personnel were from VR-8 recently returned from the Berlin Airlift also at Hickam and supplemented by additional personnel from throughout the fleet. Both squadrons then were assigned the R5D Douglas Skymaster and provided additonal long range airlift capacity to the MATS routes in the Pacific. The route included stops at Midway, Kwajelein, Wake, Guam, Okinawa Islands and Japan and the Philippines.

In late 1953 the squadron began the arduous task of acquiring and training in the state of the art R7V Super Constellation aircraft. This aircraft allowed for longer range Trans-Pacific service, eliminating the need for frequent refueling stops at the lesser Pacific Islands. A complement of 16 aircraft, their flight crews and maintenance personnel and equipment was assigned.

Shortly thereafter they were chosen to establish and maintain the "Embassy Run" which originated at Travis AFB CA and traveled westward across the Pacific to American Embassies in Tokyo (Tachikawa AFB), Manila (Clark AFB), Saigon Indo China (Than Son Nhut AB), Calcutta India, Bangkok Thailand, Calcutta India, New Delhi India, Karachi Pakistan and terminating at Dhahran Saudi Arabia. There it met the Eastern "Embassy Run" flown by squadrons of the Atlantic Division of MATS.

In 1957 the squadron relocated to NAS Moffett Fld. CA as the operational squadron along with VR-8 as the maintenance squadron with all 32 aircraft. In 1963 the squadrons received a new aircraft, the C-130E long range heavy lift transport, and supplied the R7V to Air National Guard and AF Reserve units throughout the U.S. This also changed their role to that of combat air lift and supply. This new role entailed serious training in formation flying, paratroop and equipment insertion and low level radar evasion tactics.

In 1967, along with other Navy units assigened to MATS, VR-7 was dis-established at NAS Moffett Fld. CA. During its illustrious history, it had flown the R4D Skytrain, R5D Skymaster, the R7V Super Constellation and the C-130E Hercules with a loss of only 3 aircraft. A Hearty, Hail and Farewell was given to this fine squadron.

"VR-7 Summary Page"

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