WW II USMC Marine VMF 124 Fighter Squadron History Campaign Book for Sale

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WW II USMC Marine VMF 124 Fighter Squadron History Campaign Book For Sale

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WW II USMC Marine VMF 124 Fighter Squadron History Campaign Book:
$27.00

The history of Marine Corps Fighter Squadron VMF 115 from WW II, also known as \"The Whistling Death\".

VMF-124 wasformed on 2 September 1942 at Camp Kearney, San Diego, California. They weredeclared fully operational on 28 December 1942 even though the squadron’spilots had only an average of 25 hours each in the plane. They arrived onGuadalcanal on the morning of February 12, 1943 led by their commandingofficer, Major William Gise. The squadron flew their first mission before lunchthat day, with twelve F4Us escorting a PBY Catalina on a 230 mile mission topick up two downed pilots at Sandfly Bay, Vella Lavella.

VMF-124 Corsairs on Guadalcanal.

The firstF4U pilot to be decorated with the Medal of Honor came from VMF-124 — 1st LtKenneth A. Walsh for a mission on August 30, 1943, during which he shot downfour Japanese Zeros before ditching his borrowed Corsair. The squadron remainedin the Solomon Islands until September 1943, fighting over the Russell Islands,New Georgia and Vella Levella.

Followingthe fighting in the Solomons, the squadron was disbanded and reconstituted backin the United States where it trained in the Mojave Desert at Marine CorpsAuxiliary Airfield Mojave for the next year. When they received their ordersfor carrier assignments they had 5 combat experienced pilots as their trainingnucleus VMF-124 left the States again on 18 September 1944, heading to Hawaii.While in Hawaii they were attached to Carrier Air Group 4 who were operatingoff the aircraft carrier USS Essex (CV-9). Along with VMF-213, 124 became thefirst Marine squadron to be based on a fleet aircraft carrier.[4] Whiledeployed aboard the Essex, they took part in fighting over Lingayen, Luzon,Formosa, Tokyo, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. On 3 January 1945 VMF-124 and VMF-213struck Formosa and the Ryukyu Islands in the first Marine land strike off acarrier.

This reprinted book has 93 Pages in this 8 1/2 x 11 staple bound format.