Flight crew training continued concurrently with patrol operations along the Atlantic seaboard as a part of Task Force 28 in the Eastern Sea Frontier.

On 9 July 1943 Lieutenant Soverel and crew attacked U-134 off Bermuda, the submarine, caught on the surface, manned its potent anti-aircraft (AA) defenses and heavily damaged the PBM-3S, forcing it to return to base.

On 12 June the squadron deployed to NAS Key West, Florida, under the operational control of FAW-12 for a two-week period of Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) refresher training.

[citation needed] From 1 April 1945 squadron flight crews were divided into three sections and sent in rotation to Harvey Point, North Carolina, to pick up replacement aircraft, the PBM-5.

Following the end of World War II, the squadron's aircraft inventory was reduced from 15 to 9 and it also experienced a reduction in personnel due to the postwar demobilization.

[2] In April 1958, VP-8 transferred to its new home base at Chincoteague, Virginia, and began operating with Task Force Alfa, a Hunter-Killer (HUK) group created to develop improved ASW tactics and technology by integrating carrier-based ASW aircraft, land-based patrol aircraft, refitted destroyers, and hunter-killer submarines into a single task force structure.

[4][5] During the Cuban Missile Crisis, VP-8 sent a four-aircraft detachment to Bermuda to support the naval quarantine, including monitoring of Soviet submarines operating in the Caribbean and Eastern Atlantic.

[7] Its deployment to Sigonella included VP-8 participating in numerous ASW exercises with detachments operating out of Rota, Souda Bay, Crete, and Nîmes-Garon, France.

[8] Between 27 October – 8 December 1985, a two-aircraft detachment on rotation at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, Puerto Rico, assisted the U.S. Coast Guard in anti-drug interdiction operation the Caribbean Sea.

[8] Starting 31 December 1990, VP-8 deployed to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to support carrier battle groups for Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm, as well as monitor Soviet, Libyan, and Iraqi naval units in the Mediterranean from Naval Air Station Sigonella in coordination with U.S. Sixth Fleet carrier battle groups.

[7] During its 1998 deployment to NAF Keflavik, NS Roosevelt Roads, and Howard AFB, VP-8 conducted surface and sub-surface surveillance operations in the North Atlantic resulted in tracking 18 individual submarines from eight different countries.

[7] VP-8 flew nearly 6,000 hours operating out of 18 countries during a tri-site deployment to NAF Keflavik, NS Roosevelt Roads, and Howard Air Force Base, Panama, in 1998.

The squadron flew 450 surveillance missions in support of counter-narcotic operations in the Caribbean area of responsibility (AOR), resulting in 13 arrests and the seizure of 11 metric tons of illegal drugs worth US$171.4 million.

[7] From February to August 2003, VP-8 deployed to NAF Sigonella and Souda Bay, Crete, to provide 24-hour P-3 support for the two carrier battle groups in the Mediterranean during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), flying nearly 100 overland combat missions and over 4,000 flight hours from Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain, and Senegal.

[7] Its second OIF deployment, starting December 2006, involved VP-8 operation out of Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar as part of Task Group 57.2, a maritime patrol and reconnaissance organization consisting of 22 aircrews and 21 aircraft.

[7] During its Western Pacific deployment to Misawa Air Base and Kadena Air Base, VP-8 participated in the U.S. military response to the aftermath of 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (Operation Unified Assistance), sending the first U.S. military aircraft on station to the disaster area from to Utaphao, Thailand, and Diego Garcia, as well as flying Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HADR) missions to the affected region.