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Marine
Fighter Squadron (VMF-422) was commissioned on 1. January 1943, at Naval Air
Station San Diego. On 27. January VMF-422 moved to MCAS Santa Barbara under
the command of Major John S. MacLaughlin, Jr. to begin training together as
a squadron. For the most part the pilots flew North American SNJ- trainers
or six FM-1 Wildcats until late August when they were transported to NAS
North Island, San Diego to take delivery of twenty-four new Vought F4U-1D
Corsairs. They participated in gunnery and bombing training at the NAWS
China Lake in the Mojave Desert.
The squadron was declared operational on 24. September 1943, and ordered to
NS San Diego, where the lead echelon of twenty-four pilots and planes would
be loaded aboard the new carrier CV-17 USS Bunker Hill for transport to
Pearl Harbor, arriving on 3. October 1943.
After arrival, the squadron was initially based out of MCAS Ewa on Oahu,
however the squadron's lead echelon, was sent by transport to Midway Atoll
for advanced air patrol training with MAG-22. Upon returning to Oahu on 15.
December 1943, the squadron was issued twenty-four new F4U-1D Corsairs.
They received orders to board the escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68)
just after the New Year. Their destination was Hawkins Field on the island
of Betio in Tarawa Atoll in the recently captured Gilbert Islands. Arriving
on the early morning of 24. January 1944, VMF-422 catapulted off the ship to
fly to Hawkins Field. Major MacLaughlin was met by the chief of staff of the
Fourth Marine Base Defense Air Wing Colonel Lawrence Burke, who informed him
that VMF-422 was to fly to the island of Funafuti, 820 miles to the
southeast to await their role in Operation Flintlock, the invasion of the
Marshall Islands, scheduled for 3. February 1944.
On the morning of 25 January 1944, 23 Corsairs left for Nanomea, nealy 500
miles distant. For unknown reasons Maj. MacLaughlin did not request a lead
navigation aircarft and many have missed d a weather briefing. In any event,
en route weather proved worse than the CO had expected, and the flight turned
into a shambles. About 15 minutes out of Nanomea weather forced MacLaughlin
down to 200ft, whereupon he began a fruitless search for his destination,
eventually disappearing. Several pilots went off on their own or lost
contact with the formation, and finally Capt Cloyd Jeans, a VMF-223 “Cactus”
veteran, directed a formation ditching. Fifteen planes went in the water and
most pilots were saved after two days afloat. Only one pilot actually made it
to Nanomea. In all, six pilots died and twenty-two planes were lost. It was
the worst non-combat loss of a Marine squadron in the war.
VMF-422 was reconstituted after the disaster under the command of Major
Elmer Wrenn. The remnants of the squadron were sent to Engebi in Eniwetok
Atoll on 19. February 1944. The surviving pilots and new replacements
arrived in March and a short period of additional training took place over
the next few weeks. On 27. May 1944 a portion of the squadron was sent to
Roi-Namur to conduct interdiction missions against Japanese bases and
shipping in the Marshall Islands. The VMF-422 echelon remained on Roi-Namur
until 16.October 1944 when the squadron was reunited back on Engebi to begin
missions against Ponape.
On 26.April 1945, VMF-422 departed the Central Pacific bound for Okinawa.
The ground crew arrived at Ie Shima on 7. May 1945 with the aircraft in
trace by an additional couple of weeks. During its first combat flights over
Okinawa on 25. May 1945, the squadron was credited with shooting down five
Japanese aircraft. On 29. June 1945 Capt DeBlanc led a large formation of
Corsairs from multiple squadrons against targets on Ishigaki Island. En
route to the target four of the formation's Corsairs exploded in the sky
because bomb safety wires had worked loose, thus arming the bombs in flight.
The squadron lost ten aircraft during the Battle of Okinawa. During the
entirety of the Okinawa Campaign the squadron was credited with 15 Japanese
planes shot down.
After the war, VMF-422 returned to the United States in November 1945 and
was assigned to MAG-22 at MCAS El Toro. At some point the squadron was
transferred to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina where
it was decommissioned on 30. April 1947.
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