A little background.
Our VFA-41 was decommissioned when Jane's F/A-18 was no longer a viable platform and there were simply no longer enough active pilots in the sim to continue to fly missions. Many of the Black Aces from those days migrated to other sim platforms, such as DCS, in order to keep flying something. This was well before the DCS Hornet was released.
I started flying some DCS aircraft, especially the UH-1H Huey, which is a blast. When news of an F/A-18 in DCS World came out, I wanted to be in a squadron that would support it, so I joined CVW-11. Pilots in CVW-11 accomplished basic quals primarily in the F-5E as we eagerly awaited the Hornet and, along with it, proper carrier ops. I qualified and was assigned to VFA-154, ironically the Black Knights.
The CVW-11 CAG was aware that I had been a squadron CO for some time. As things progressed, he asked me to accept a squadron CO role in CVW-11. I told him I'd been a VFA-41 Black Ace for most of my sim career, and that if he was willing to commission VFA-41 in CVW-11, I would accept that role.
He rejected that proposal. He said that he was reserving VFA-41 as a future F-14 squadron within CVW-11. I told him, 'No, thank you, then.' He could easily have made it a win-win by agreeing to the proposal, as VFA-41 had not yet been announced or commissioned, and the F-14 remained very far off in the distance, while the Hornet was about ready to be released. Interpret that however you care to.
Meanwhile, when the Hornet was finally released, one thing led to another, and the story you've heard me tell several times, and here we are, recommissioned from where we started in 2006. (Also, ironically, VFA-41 was originally commissioned as a squadron in Jane's CVW-11 air wing... no connection to the DCS CVW-11.)
So now, in the 'official' list of squadrons on the DCS message boards, they state that VFA-41 is already 'claimed' by CVW-11. Sorry. We are throwing the bullshit flag on that.
Technically, CVW-11 is reserving VF-41, which would be the correct designation for the Tomcat era. And it is simply a placeholder. There is no actual squadron there, it's just an empty page.
And WE have been VFA-41 since 2006. The designation is not subject to claim on some message board somewhere. It's who we are and what we do that matters. We are the Black Aces, and we actively fly carrier-based combat missions. We have earned the recognition and respect of the sim community for how we do things, and that membership in the squadron has value well beyond simply being a name on a huge roster.
So don't let anyone tell you that the squadron is 'claimed.' It is a legacy in the sim community that you are preserving, and that was earned by those who wore the Black Aces flight suit in the virtual skies before you.
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