Officially Licensed USMC VMF-211 Wake Island Avengers WWII Patch

USMC VMF-211 Wake Island Avengers WWII Patch

Marine Fighting Squadron 211 (VMF-211) – "The Wake Island Avengers"

Commissioned on 1 January 1937 as Marine Fighting Squadron 4 (VF-4M) at Naval Air Station San Diego, California, the squadron that would become VMF-211 included among its early pilots three future Medal of Honor recipients: Henry Elrod, Robert Galer, and Gregory "Pappy" Boyington. Redesignated VMF-211 on 1 July 1941 at MCAS Ewa, Hawaii, the squadron sent 12 F4F-3 Wildcats and 13 pilots aboard USS Enterprise to Wake Island in November 1941, arriving just days before the Japanese attack that plunged America into World War II. On 8 December 1941, Japanese bombers destroyed seven of the twelve aircraft on the ground, but the remaining five Wildcats mounted a furious defense over the next two weeks, sinking at least four enemy warships—the first major Japanese naval vessels lost in the Pacific War—and destroying eight enemy aircraft.

Captain Henry T. "Hammering Hank" Elrod became the first Marine aviator to earn the Medal of Honor in World War II after single-handedly attacking a flight of 22 enemy aircraft, shooting down two, and becoming the first pilot to sink a warship—the destroyer Kisaragi—with small-caliber bombs delivered from a fighter aircraft. When the last aircraft were destroyed, VMF-211 pilots and ground crew fought as infantrymen until Wake Island was overrun on 23 December. The surviving rear echelon, having lost all but one Wildcat at Ewa during the Pearl Harbor attack, rebuilt the squadron and adopted the name "Avengers" in memory of their fallen and captured brothers. VMF-211 went on to fight across the Pacific in the Treasury-Bougainville, Bismarck, Northern Solomons, Leyte, and Southern Philippines campaigns flying the F4U Corsair. The squadron served through Korea, Vietnam (four deployments to Chu Lai flying A-4 Skyhawks), transitioned to the AV-8B Harrier, and in 2016 became VMFA-211, the second fleet squadron to operate the F-35B Lightning II—flying the first-ever U.S. F-35 combat mission from USS Essex in September 2018.

Perfect For: VMF-211 and VMFA-211 veterans from any era, Wake Island battle historians, Medal of Honor and WWII Pacific Theater collectors, F-35B Lightning II enthusiasts, and Marine Corps aviation heritage collectors.

This WWII patch commemorates the squadron's defining moment—the heroic defense of Wake Island that gave the Avengers their name and forged a legacy of valor that endures to this day.