deactivated

There are hundreds of US Navy aircraft squadrons which are not currently active dating back to before World War II (the U.S. Navy operated aircraft prior to World War I, but it did not organize them in squadrons until after that war). To be more accurate: there are hundreds of former U.S. Navy aircraft squadrons which have been disestablished and no longer exist and there are approximately 40 or so U.S. Navy aircraft squadrons which have been deactivated and which currently exist only "on paper" in an inactive status. These disestablished and/or deactivated squadrons are sometimes incorrectly referred to as "decommissioned" squadrons, but proper usage prior to 1998, was that squadrons were "established" and "disestablished" and after 1998, squadrons are "established", "deactivated" and sometimes "reactivated". It has never been correct to refer to U.S. Navy aircraft squadrons as being "commissioned" and "decommissioned", ships are commissioned and decommissioned, U.S. Navy aircraft squadrons are not.

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