Official VT-22 Golden Eagles T-45 Goshawk Coffin Patches — Training Squadron 22 NAS Kingsville Strike Pipeline T-45C Goshawk Embroidered Patch Set
The first jet training unit in CNATRA — VT-22 Golden Eagles, T-45C Goshawks at Kingsville.
Training Squadron 22 (VT-22), the "Golden Eagles," is a US Navy intermediate and advanced strike training squadron based at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, operating under Training Air Wing TWO (CTW-2) and the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA). VT-22 was established on June 13, 1949 at NAS Corpus Christi as Advanced Training Unit Six (ATU-6) — becoming the very first unit in the Naval Air Training Command to instruct in jet aircraft, and receiving its first aircraft, a TV-1, in July 1949. After two months at NAS Corpus Christi the squadron relocated to NAS Whiting Field, Florida and was redesignated Jet Transitional Training Unit One (JTTU-1) — and during this period actually trained the US Navy Blue Angels through their transition to jet aircraft. On August 20, 1951 JTTU-1 moved to NAS Kingsville and was redesignated through ATU-3, ATU-200, and ATU-212, until finally redesignated as Training Squadron 22 (VT-22) in May 1960. The squadron flew the F9F-8/8T Cougar (1958), TA-4J Skyhawk (1970), and on September 1994 transitioned to the T-45A/C Goshawk — which replaced both the T-2C Buckeye and TA-4J Skyhawk curricula in a single airframe. Today VT-22 conducts strike jet training comprising 123 sorties totaling 156 flight hours plus simulator and academic instruction, culminating in the carrier qualifications that earn each student their Wings of Gold. The "Coffin" patches reference the T-45's distinctive coffin-shaped engine intake and squadron callsign tradition.
Perfect For: VT-22 Golden Eagles instructor pilots and student naval aviators, NAS Kingsville residents, Training Air Wing TWO (CTW-2) personnel, CNATRA staff, T-45C Goshawk pilots and maintainers, TA-4J Skyhawk heritage instructors, US Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team historians, and naval aviation strike pipeline alumni.
Golden Eagles — CNATRA's first jet training squadron.
