The Fighting Escargots was established in July 1970 at NAS Norfolk as a component of Anti-Submarine Group Reserve Seventy.

[1] VAW-78 operated on board aircraft carriers on five extended periods for active duty training of its Navy Reserve personnel.

The squadron also coordinated missile shoots and provided search and rescue support for Space Shuttle launches.

Its most important contribution was with the tracking and interdiction of drug running aircraft and vessels in the Caribbean area starting in the 1990s .

In 1999, after Hurricane Floyd struck the U.S. East Coast, the squadron provided air control for federal, state, and local aircraft bringing relief to 20,000 flooded residents.