[1] VC-9 was established at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Sanford, Florida in January 1953 and was initially equipped with the AJ-2 Savage, receiving its first aircraft in June 1953.

In preparation for the arrival of the A3D Skywarrior heavy attack jet aircraft as the designated airframe to replace the AJ Savage in the carrier-based nuclear strike role, NAAS Sanford was subject to significant improvements during the mid and late 1950s in order to upgrade the installation to full naval air station status as a Master Jet Base.

Having been designed as a supersonic nuclear strike bomber, aircraft such as the A-5A and A-5B no longer had a mission, and in 1963, the Navy decided to halt any further procurement of the A-5A and the follow-on A-5B.

Attrition of airframes and the increasing maintenance and flight hour costs of the RA-5C in a constrained defense budget environment forced the Navy to incrementally retire the RA-5C and sunset the RVAH community beginning in mid-1974.

Following its return from its final Mediterranean deployment in early 1977, RVAH-9 was inactivated at Naval Air Station Key West on 30 September 1977 following over 24 1/2 years of active service.