Officially Licensed USMC VMFA-323 Death Rattlers Leather Patches — 124 Kills Without a Single Loss, and They Were Just Getting Started
The Death Rattlers shot down 124 Japanese aircraft at Okinawa without losing a single one of their own. That's how the legend started.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) — the 'Death Rattlers' — is one of the most legendary squadrons in Marine Corps aviation history. Commissioned on August 1, 1943, at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, the squadron got its nickname when three fighter pilots killed a six-foot rattlesnake and hung its skin in the ready room. The Death Rattlers trained in F4U Corsairs and deployed to the Pacific, arriving at Kadena airfield on Okinawa on April 9, 1945. Between then and the Japanese surrender in August, the Death Rattlers shot down 124 enemy aircraft without a single loss — one of the most remarkable combat records in aviation history — producing 12 aces. The squadron fought in the Korean War from USS Badoeng Strait, supporting ground forces at the Pusan Perimeter, Inchon, and the Chosin Reservoir. The Death Rattlers flew F9F Panthers, FJ-4 Furies, F8U Crusaders, and F-4 Phantoms before deploying to Vietnam from Da Nang in 1965. In 1982, VMFA-323 transitioned to the F/A-18 Hornet and deployed aboard USS Coral Sea in 1985 as part of the first carrier air wing to deploy with Marine F/A-18s, participating in Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya. The Death Rattlers flew combat in Operations Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom, and in 2021 returned from their final F/A-18 carrier deployment — the last legacy Hornet carrier deployment in the Marine Corps — making history one more time before transitioning to the F-35. These leather patches carry the Death Rattlers' extraordinary combat legacy.
Perfect For: VMFA-323 Death Rattlers Marines past and present, F/A-18 Hornet, F-4 Phantom, and Corsair community veterans, MCAS Miramar and MAG-11 personnel, and anyone who has served with the Snakes.
