Official VT-21 Redhawks T-45 Goshawk Shoulder Patch

Official VT-21 Redhawks T-45 Goshawk Shoulder Patch — Training Squadron 21 NAS Kingsville Strike Pipeline Embroidered Patch

Where strike pilots are made — VT-21 Redhawks, T-45 Goshawks at Kingsville since '69.

Training Squadron 21 (VT-21), the "Redhawks," 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). Commissioned as Basic Training Group 7 (BTG-7) at NAS Kingsville on July 1, 1960 and redesignated VT-21 on May 1, 1969, the squadron has produced the great majority of the Navy's, Marine Corps', and partner-nation strike-fighter pilots ever since. VT-21 originally trained student naval aviators in the F-9 Cougar and the TA-4J Skyhawk before adopting the McDonnell Douglas/BAE Systems T-45A Goshawk in 1991 — the Navy's first all-jet T-45 Training System (T-45TS). Today every student naval aviator selected for the strike (jet) pipeline rotates through VT-21 (or its sister squadron VT-22 Golden Eagles), where they fly the T-45C Goshawk through the Strike syllabus — Familiarization, Basic Instruments, Formation, Air-to-Air Gunnery, Air-to-Ground Weapons, and Carrier Qualifications — culminating in the day and night CQ traps aboard a Navy aircraft carrier that earn them their Wings of Gold. The Redhawks' distinctive red, black, and white tailcode and red-tailed hawk emblem appear on every Goshawk on the Kingsville flight line.

Perfect For: VT-21 Redhawks instructor pilots and student naval aviators, NAS Kingsville residents, Training Air Wing TWO personnel, CNATRA staff, T-45C Goshawk pilots and maintainers, T-2 Buckeye and TA-4 Skyhawk heritage instructors, Naval Aviator alumni, and the family members of student naval aviators in the strike pipeline.

Redhawks — Wings of Gold start at Kingsville.