Five AV-8B Harrier II's with Marine Attack Squadron 231 fly in formation during the squadron’s final flight ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina on May 29, 2025. (Bryan Giraldo/U.S. Marine Corps)

The Marine Corps’ oldest flying squadron recently took another step toward the service’s retirement of a venerable vertical takeoff aircraft to make way for its fifth-generation successor.

Marine Attack Squadron 231 bid farewell Thursday to the AV-8B Harrier II with a final flight, the service said in a statement the same day.

Known as the “Ace of Spades,” the Cherry Point, N.C.-based squadron is slated to deactivate in September and will reactivate in 2026 as a fighter attack squadron operating the F-35 Lightning II.

That will leave Marine Attack Squadron 223, also based at the air station in North Carolina, as the last one in the Corps flying the Harrier until it deactivates in 2026.

Two members of that squadron, Capts. Joshua Corbett and Sven Jorgensen, became the last two Marines trained on the aircraft, and last spring they received the 7509 military occupational specialty reserved for Harrier-qualified pilots.

The Harrier II, a light attack vertical takeoff aircraft, has been a mainstay of the squadron for four decades. It is one of three jets in the military due to be replaced by fifth-generation aircraft, the other two being the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F/A 18 Hornet.

A definitive timeline for the Ace of Spades to become fully operational with the F-35B Lightning II has not yet been released, 1st Lt. Duncan Stoner, a 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing spokesperson, said Friday. 

With a legacy spanning more than a century, the squadron has been at the forefront of Marine Corps aviation modernization. It flew the original Hawker-Siddeley AV-8A Harrier in 1973, according to its official history.

The squadron supported operations including Desert Storm and Desert Shield, its official history page says. 

Most recently, the squadron contributed to Operation Prosperity Guardian, a Red Sea-based effort to deter Houthi attacks, which began in late 2023, according to a statement issued Thursday.

With the arrival of the F-35s, the squadron will be “more capable of responding to any crisis,” squadron commander Lt. Col. Paul Truog said during a ceremony Thursday. 

“But that capability is not just because it’s our most technically advanced weapons system,” he added. “That capability is because of the Marines and the pilots that, in record amounts, raise their hands saying, ‘I want to continue on, I want to keep moving forward.’”