The birth of a tradition: A look at 35 FW history

  • Published
  • By Erica Reece
  • 35th Fighter Wing Historian
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Today's 35th Fighter Wing is the descendent of a unit that came into existence 70 years ago.

On Dec. 22, 1939, the 35th Pursuit Group was established at Moffett Field near San Francisco, Calif. In February of 1940, the group moved to Hamilton Field, located at the northern end of the San Francisco Bay and began operations with the 18th, 20th and 21st Pursuit Squadrons flying P-35s, P-36s and P-40s. On Dec. 5, 1941, the group sailed for the Philippines to help bolster the American forces there. After the attack on Pearl Harbor two days later, their convoy turned around and returned to San Francisco to await further orders. There was a genuine concern that attacks on the western coast of America would be next, so the pilots of the 35th PG began flying patrols up and down the California coast - scouting for hostile forces.

On Jan. 12, 1942, the group set sail once again, this time headed for Australia. They arrived in Brisbane at the beginning of February but only lingered briefly before heading to New Delhi, India. After two months in India, the group moved again, arriving back in Australia in May of 1942. After some bureaucratic shuffling, the group now had a new name, the 35th Fighter Group, and three newly assigned squadrons replaced the three original squadrons who were reassigned to other groups. Now the group consisted of the 39th Fighter Squadron and the 40th and 41st Pursuit Squadrons. They received a full complement of brand new P-400s to replace their mixture of P-35s, P-36s and P-40s. The P-400 was the export version of the P-39 but its performance disappointed the original purchaser (the British Royal Air Force) so much so that they had cancelled the rest of the order. Nearly 200 of the brand new P-400s were awaiting delivery in the United States to a customer who no longer wanted them. After the attack on Pearl Harbor - those aircraft entered active service with the U.S. Army Air Corps. They may not have been the best aircraft but they were brand new and capable of flying and that was enough in an era of wartime crisis. Armed with a 20 mm cannon, two .50-caliber machine guns in the fuselage and four .30-caliber guns in the wings, a capable pilot could cause significant damage to enemy ground forces despite the aircraft's shortcomings when it came to air-to-air engagements.

Once reorganized, the 35th FG moved to New Guinea where they provided air defense for Port Moresby and supported the Australian Army's push across the Owen Stanley Mountains. In the fall of 1942, the 39th FS became the first unit in the Pacific to fly the P-38 Lightening. They were responsible for the first aerial victory credited to the P-38 and it was a very unusual scenario. On Nov. 25, 1942, Capt. Robert Faurot flew over an enemy airfield, carrying 500-pound bombs with the intention of bombing the airfield. He spotted a Zero preparing to take off and dove down to attack. Halfway through the dive - he realized he still had the 500 pound bombs attached to his aircraft. Knowing they would significantly hinder his movements, he jettisoned the bombs and climbed to reposition himself. The bombs impacted the water at the end of the runway, creating a massive plume of water, just as the Zero took off. The plane flew into the waterspout and the resulting turbulence caused the Zero to crash. The pilot received an Air Medal that day from the commander of the 5th Air Force with the caveat that in the future he "wanted his pilots to shoot the enemy planes down, not splash water on them."

The pilots of the 35th FG continued their successes as the war in the Pacific raged. They escorted bombers and transports, attacked enemy shipping lanes, airfields and supply lines and provided cover for Allied troop landings. They participated in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, proving that land-based aircraft could pose a significant threat to convoys at sea. By December of 1943, all three squadrons transitioned to the P-47 Thunderbolt and began flying long-range missions against the Philippines preparing for the return of U.S. forces to those islands. In May of 1945, they switched aircraft once again. Now flying the P-51 Mustang, they moved to the island of Okinawa where they remained until the end of the war. In October of 1945, the group moved to Irumagawa Airfield near Tokyo. As the relationship with the Japanese government warmed and relations with China and Russia cooled, they began flying air defense missions to protect Japan from a possible communist invasion as the Cold War began. In 1948, the Air Force reorganized its units again, creating the 35th Fighter Wing and integrating the 35th FG as part of the new wing.
The honors and successes of the 35th FG became a part of the 35th FW's history. The 35th FG participated in 11 different major campaigns during the course of the war in the Pacific. They were a part of the East Indies Campaign (January - July 1942), the Air Offensive against Japan (April 1942 - September 1945), the China Defensive Campaign (July 1942 - May 1945), the China Offensive Campaign (May - September 1945), the Papua Campaign (July 1942 - January 1943), the New Guinea Campaign (January 1943 - December 1944), the Bismarck Archipelago Campaign (December 1943 - November 1944), the Western Pacific Campaign (April 1944 - September 1945), the Leyte Campaign (October 1944 - July 1945), the Luzon Campaign (December 1944 - July 1945) and the Ryukyus Campaign (March - July 1945). They received a Distinguished Unit Citation for their actions in Papua and received the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation in appreciation of their efforts in the defense and liberation of the Philippine Islands. With nearly 400 aerial victory credits and 20 aces in World War II, the men of the 35th FG flew and fought heroically. They set a high standard for the 35th FW to carry forward.

The 35th FW continued to participate in each major conflict the United States became involved in as it moved over the years from Japan to Korea to Vietnam to the United States to Iceland and finally back to Japan where it is located today. The legacy of the original pilots assigned to the 35th FG lives on in the tradition of excellence demonstrated every day by the men and women of today's 35th FW.