[1] VC-6 was established at Naval Air Station Moffett Field, California on 6 January 1950 as the Navy's second nuclear attack squadron and was initially equipped with the P2V Neptune.

[3][5] Attrition of airframes and the increasing maintenance and flight hour costs of the RA-5C in a constrained post-Vietnam defense budget environment forced the Navy to incrementally retire the RA-5C and sunset the RVAH community beginning in mid-1974 as the RVAH community began relocating from the inactivating NAS Albany to NAS Key West.

Carrier-based reconnaissance was concurrently conducted by the active duty VFP community at Naval Air Station Miramar and the Naval Reserve VFP community at Andrews Air Force Base / NAF Washington with the RF-8G Crusader until 29 March 1987, when the last RF-8G is retired and the mission was fully transferred to the active duty and Naval Reserve VF community at NAS Miramar, Naval Air Station Oceana, Naval Air Station Dallas and NAS JRB Fort Worth as a secondary role with the F-14 Tomcat equipped with the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS).

Following its return from its final Atlantic/Mediterranean deployment in July 1978, RVAH-6 was inactivated at Naval Air Station Key West on 20 October 1978 following over 28 years of active service.

[5] One of RVAH-6's aircraft from its final deployment aboard Nimitz, BuNo 156624, was flown to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida as a permanent addition to the collection of the National Naval Aviation Museum.