Part 3: Back to the States

On 17 October, the squadron detached from Pityilu Island Field, transferred to the USS MAKASSAR STRAIT (CVE-91), and left aboard her for Pearl Harbor – along with 70 damaged airplanes being taken back to Hawaii.  They arrived at Pearl Harbor on 26 October 1944 and immediately began a short period of rest and recreation.  Most of the  squadron personnel were billeted at the plush Royal Hawaiian Hotel.  They used the beach and swam in the ocean – after the Marine guards opened the barbed wire barrier that guarded the beach from invasion. 

VC-66 departed Hawaii on 29 October 1944 aboard the troop transport USS GENERAL COLLINS (AP-147).  The GENERAL COLLINS had a crew of 356 and a troop carrying capacity of about 2200.  When VC-66 was aboard her, the ship was packed with troops returning to California.  There was no more “officers’ country” berthing and no private mess cook now for the squadron’s enlisted men.  Instead, they were berthed in a large compartment with nine high rows of bunks and a lot of seasick Marines.  They were served two meals a day with no seconds – but no one in the squadron was complaining.  They were going home. 

The GENERAL COLLINS arrived at NAS Alameda, San Francisco on 3 November 1944.  At that time, the officers and men of the squadron were detached for leave and most for reassignment elsewhere in the Navy.  While 5 of the pilots – W.D. Cope, G.W. Brown, R.E. Holley, R.F. Krost, and J.N. Polski - were reassigned to the "new" VC-66 that was to be re-formed (VC-66 [T-2]), most of the officers and enlisted men were sent elsewhere to help form new squadrons for the final effort against Japan.  But before being allowed to leave NAS Alameda, the Shore Patrol gave each enlisted man a 1 inch by 5 inch lead bar to sew into his neckerchief – to be used to defend against “muggers” who were preying on recently paid sailors coming back from the war.  Welcome home.

The reassignment of almost all of the squadron personnel to other Navy units effectively concluded the history of the original VC-66 or VC-66 (T-1) as it later became officially known.

From 21 June 1943 through 3 November 1944, the original COMPOSITE SQUADRON SIXTY-SIX (VC-66 [T-1]) amassed 14,891 hours of flight time including 5866 flight hours at sea; 2075 carrier landings; numerous combat bombing and strafing missions as well as many spotting, photographic, and long range fleet patrol missions - and 618 anti-submarine patrol and combat air patrol missions.  During that period, the squadron was credited with destroying or doing significant damage to Japanese aircraft, ships, and airfields where it flew.  While squadron personnel earned 3 combat stars, a Presidential Unit Citation, and numerous personal decorations, they had lost 12 shipmates and friends.  Those 12 men did not die in vain.  They and the surviving members of VC-66 had made a major contribution to victory in a war that had to be won.  While it had been a sobering and maturing experience, it was also one for which they could rightly take “a good deal of pride and satisfaction.”

  EPILOGUE

5 December 1944: VC-66 was re-formed with new personnel around the core of the 5 veteran pilots at NAS Alameda.  The new group was known as VC-66 (T-2).  For their history compiled by Joe A. Mussatto, see: <http://www.geocities.com/muzzo2/My_Page.html?20077>.

            7 May 1945: Germany surrendered.  The war in Europe was over.

6 August 1945: an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. 

9 August: an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. 

            15 August 1945: Japan surrendered.  World War II was over.

12 October 1945: VC-66 was decommissioned.

  “You have served in the greatest Navy in the world. 

It crushed two enemy fleets at once, receiving their 

                                    surrenders only four months apart.  It brought our

                                    land-based airpower within bombing range of the

   enemy, and set our ground armies on the beachheads

   of final victory…No other Navy at any time has done

                                   so much.  For your part in these achievements 

                                   you deserve to be proud as long as you live. 

                                   The Nation which you served at a time of crisis will 

                                   remember you with gratitude..." 

                                                                                    James Forrestal

                                                                                                                Secretary of the Navy

                                                                                                                29 November 1945

                                                                        Compiled by Stephen A. Banks

                                                                        CDR, JAGC, USN (Ret.)

                                                                        Springfield, Virginia

                                                                        E-mail:  Runner4evr@aol.com

                                                                        May 2007