Light Photographic Squadron 62 was an aviation unit of the United States Navyin service from 1949 to 1968. The squadron provided a detachment of reconnaissance planes for each of the Carrier Air Wings of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
History
VFP-62 was established in January 1949 as Composite Squadron SIX TWO, nicknamed the Fighting Photos, and was equipped with Grumman F8F-2P Bearcat and Vought F4U-5P Corsair fighter aircraft converted to reconnaissance platforms. The first VC-62 detachment was assigned to Carrier Air Group 7 aboard the aircraft carrier from September 1949 to January 1950 for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. Detachments of the squadron operated from all Atlantic Fleet attack aircraft carriers based on the U.S. east coast. From September 1950 to February 1951, a VC-62 detachment also operated during the Korean War from the USS Leyte as part of CVG-3. In 1951, the squadron converted to jet aircraft and was equipped with the McDonnell F2H-2P Banshee. On 2 July 1956, the squadron was redesignated Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron SIX TWO and transitioned to the Grumman F9F-6P Cougar. Renamed Light Photographic Squadron SIX TWO in order to distinguish it from Heavy Photographic squadrons that were being established, the squadron received its first Vought F8U-1P Crusader aircraft in 1959, which were redesignated as the RF-8A Crusader in 1962. In 1966, these aircraft were upgraded to a new standard designated as the RF-8G. VFP-62 is best known as the squadron that took the first low-level photos of the Soviet missile bases in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. At the time, it was commanded by then-Commander William Ecker, USN. In 2000, the movie Thirteen Days, produced by Kevin Costner, showed the actions of Ecker and the other members of VFP-62 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. From June 1966 to February 1967, VFP-62 Det 42 operated from the off Vietnam as part of CVW-1. VFP-62 was subsequently disestablished on 1 January 1968, with its role assumed by its Pacific Fleet sister squadron, VFP-63, also flying the RF-8G, and by several reconnaissance attack squadrons flying the RA-5C Vigilante.
