Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) is an aircraft carrier-based aviation squadron of the United States Marine Corps. The squadron is equipped with the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet and is based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, United States. It falls under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 11 (MAG-11) and the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (3rd MAW) but deploys with the U.S. Navy's Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17). Their tail code is WS and their radio callsign is Snake. History World War II VMF-323 was commissioned August 1, 1943 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. According to oral history, the squadron got its name from three fighter pilots who killed a rattlesnake and hung its skin in the squadron's ready room. VMF-323 began training in F4U Corsairs almost immediately for combat in the Pacific theater of World War II. On December 16, 1943 the squadron received orders to prepare to move to the west coast of the United States beginning the first week of January 1944. Much of the new squadron's training was done at Marine Corps Air Station El Centro and Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, California. In July 1944, the Death Rattlers departed for the Pacific aboard . For the next nine months, VMF-323 flew training missions from secure island bases in the South Pacific. On April 9, 1945, 24 aircraft from the Death Rattlers launched from the and flew into Kadena airfield in support of Operation Iceberg during the Battle of Okinawa. Combat operations commenced the following day. Between then and the Japanese surrender in August, the Death Rattlers racked up 124 Japanese planes shot down without a single loss. The highest total of any squadron during the battle. Twelve Death Rattlers became aces. After the war, the Death Rattlers were based at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, where they conducted training exercises. It was around this time that the squadron appeared in the 1949 movie Sands of Iwo Jima. Korean War and post-war When the Korean War began in 1950, VMF-323 began combat operations from as part of Marine Aircraft Group 33 (MAG-33), supporting ground forces in the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, Battle of Inchon, Battle of Chosin Reservoir and almost every other major campaign of the conflict. During action near Kosong, on 11 August 1950, a VMF-323 Corsair pilot, Captain Vivian M. Moses, became the first Marine aviator