 Following the cessation of hostilities, the mission of the
Second Emergency Rescue Squadron was primarily one of patrol, search and rescue. With
Headquarters and main facilities at Clark Field and three active detachments and Palawan,
Leyte, and Laoag, the Squadron began to undergo early in the year the personnel changeover
that has characterized units in the Armed Forces with the equally characteristic lowering
of the experience level of the Squadron.
Aware of the unceasing responsibility for
the safeguarding of distressed aircraft and surface vessels, training of replacements to
maintain a high experience level became of paramount importance. The two phases, our
mission and our training program became objects for the concentration of our effort.
In January, with 62 long service and high
point men returning to the States, our rescues included two Naval aviators and 20
survivors from a C-47 which crashed off Formosa.
Routine patrols and searches were
conducted with a little change in the average hours flown for the month. A program of
checking-out all co-pilots in first pilots duties was launched in out two heavy rescue
ships (B-17's and OA-10's) with an eye toward the all around capabilities of an airplane
commander becoming common to all pilots. Two B-17 pilots were transitioned in the R6-A
helicopters starting in January. Rations were dropped by helicopters to eight infantrymen
who were stranded in a canyon near Balog Blog, Luzon. Instrument proficiency checks were
given to pilots at the detachments and Clark Field, both for the renewal of instrument
cards and the need of instrument proficiency because of the weather flying required in
rescue work and patrol. Replacements as they arrived were immediately assigned to
"on-the-job-training" co-workers whose task it became to trim and train the new
men to our type aircraft.
FEBRUARY 1946 - SQUADRON HISTORY [Back][Next]
February brought a group of ground force men to the organization. Here again
emphasis was placed on the training required to maintain aircraft peculiar to a rescue
squadron. The bulk of these replacements were assigned to engineering
sections and
"On-the-job" training came into its own. A surprising number of the riflemen
"took" to the Air Corp with gusto and having willing workers and understanding
"instructors" our maintenance suffered very little. The Squadron
acquired an
additional B-17 and three L-5 type aircraft and with the L-5's, a new transition program.
By the month's end five liaison pilots had been fully trained and were ready for short
field landings and take-offs, search and courier service. Rescues for the month were the
crew and passengers of a Philippine airliner C-47 and the crew of an Army "J"
boat. Escort for a flight of P-51's to Palawan and a flight of Australian planes to
Okinawa were also a part of the month's work. Formal training directives began to arrive
from 85th Fighter Wing and higher headquarters in higher numbers than any previous months
and it was apparent that the emphasis placed on training was now fully confirmed.
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MARCH 1946 - SQUADRON
HISTORY [Back][Next]
In March we fortunately received fifty re-enlistees, many of them
trained airplane mechanics, a skill badly needed in the Squadron in spite of our training
effort. This need evidenced itself each time a group of "old hands" left for the
States, outfitting our "Instructor" mechanics force by as many as twenty men at
one time. Formal ground training made its appearance in March in the Squadron bringing
with it such items as scheduled Physical Training, Saturday inspections, reviews and
formal classroom instruction on the flight line. Technical orders on visual inspection
systems, aircraft records and reports and T. O. indexing systems were fully explained and
demonstrated using two hours each Wednesday afternoon. Escort flights covering B-29's to
Guam and Australian fighters to Okinawa continued through March. A search for the
parachuted crew of a B-29 North of Clark Field resulted in the recovery of all personnel,
three by helicopters. A crashed C-47 and survivors were located and rescue party
dispatched near Lucena, Luzon to scene of crash. It was in March that General Parker's
B-17 enroute Shanghai to Nichols Field was located crashed in north eastern Formosa and
the Squadron was assigned the task of returning any remains. None of the ship's occupants
survived and two of our B-17's carried the bodies to Manila.
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APRIL 1946 - SQUADRON
HISTORY [Back][Next]
In April the engineering ground school studied such subjects as
"nomenclature of airplane parts", "methods of filling and distribution of
technical orders", and the "nomenclature of Maintenance equipment". A
special mission was conducted by operations personnel of the Squadron in Southern
Mindanao at the direction of the War Department during April. The job involved located a
year old crash of a Marine Corps PBJ (B-25) and determining the fate of five missing crew
members. The mission was successfully completed 1 May 1946 and results forwarded to the
War Department. During this search three aircraft were utilized. A C-47, an OA-10A and a
helicopter. The Squadron continued to escort B-29's to Guam and flew several missions
between Nichols Field and Saigon, Indo-China in search for a mission PBY. On 13 April one
of our "Cats" (OA-10A) removed a merchant seaman requiring immediate
hospitalization from a merchant vessel off the coast of northern Luzon and flew him to
Manila. Emphasis in our Orientation meetings during April was on the benefits of the Army
Educational Program and the GI Bill of Rights, the Articles of War and Military Courtesy
and Discipline.
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