Veterans of the War with Japan, the 318th Fighter Group was in the 7th Fighter Command, known as the Pineapple Air Force. The 7th Fighter Command was the first American Fighters to engage the enemy and the last to engage the enemy during WW 11. The 7th Fighter Command was composed, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, of the 15th Fighter Group and the 18th Fighter Group. The 19th, 44th, 72nd, and 73rd Fighter Squadrons that later served in the 318th were in those two groups. During the attack on Oahu, described by Franklin D. Roosevelt as "The day of infamy," many of the flyable P40s and P36s that were assigned to the defense of the Hawaiian Islands were easy targets, lined up along the runways of the Army Air Corps fields, and were destroyed on the ground. Several P40 pilots were killed as they entered the cockpit, as they taxied or were in the process of taking off. A very few got air home and although greatly outnumbered they bravely fought the attacking force.

The 318th was activated in October 1942 when the 72nd and 44th Fighter Squadrons were transferred from the 15th and 18th Groups. The 73rd and 333rd Fighter Squadrons were transferred in November 1942 and January 1943. In March of 1943 the 44th was transferred out of the group and was replaced by the 19th Fighter Squadron. The group was equipped with P4OKs, P4ONs, and A24s, but in June of 1943 the P39Qs began to arrive at Bellows Field and the 72nd Fighter Squadron traded their P40s for the Flying Cannon, the Bell Airacobra.. In December 1943 the 72nd Fighter Squadron in their P39s were catapulted from the deck of the jeep aircraft carrier Nassau and landed at Makin atoll on the little island of Butaritari. At the completion of the Gilberts/Marshalls Campaign the 72nd F. S. was transferred to the newly activated 21st Fighter Group to prepare for the job of escorting the B29s over Japan.

During 1944 the 318th was equipped with P38s and during the Marianas campaign, working closely with Marine ground forces, pioneered close infantry support and employed the first use of napalm. On Saipan they had the dubious distinction along with the 21st Fighter Group on Iwo Jima of being the only Army Air Force units to engage in ground combat in WW 11 . The squadrons of the 318th Fighter Group were attacked by Japanese ground forces in June 1944 on Aslito Airfield, Saipan, sustaining modest casualties. However, in the Seventh's heaviest losses since December 7, 1941, the 21st Fighter Group was besieged in their tent camp on Iwo Jima before dawn on March 26, 1945. Pilots and ground personnel took a crash course in infantry tactics and finally destroyed the superior enemy force but suffered 15 dead and 50 wounded.

Army fighter planes flew off of aircraft carriers no less than seven times in the Pacific. P36s to Hawaii in February 1941, the 73rd F.S. to Midway in P40s in June 1942, the 45th F. S. to Canton and 72nd F. S. to Makin in P39s in December 1943, the 19th, 73rd and 333rd F.S. to Saipan in P47s in June 1944. The Makin and Saipan operations were catapult shots.

Most notably, the Seventh's airmen pioneered Very Long Range fighter operations across the Pacific with missions of historic length and duration: Kauai to Midway, Midway to Kaneohe and Makin to Jaluit and Maloelap. By late 1944 Lockheed P38s of the 318th were routinely flying missions to Truk and Iwo Jima from Saipan - 1,500 mile 8 hour trips. And by 1945, with new aircraft, VLR sorties were the rule rather than the exception for the Seventh's fighters. In April 1945 the 15th and 21st Fighter Groups began flying 1300 mile escorts and sweeps from Iwo Jima to Honshu in the P51 Mustang. In May 1945 the 318th Group advanced to le Shima where they reached out to Japanese targets in Kyushu and China. On August 13, 1945 the 318th flew from le Shirna to Tokyo - 1680 statute miles, 8 1/2 hours of non-stop flight.

When at last the war ended on August 14, 1945, airmen from Iwo Jima and le Shima were in the sky over Japan. Several members of the old Pineapple Air Force who had witnessed the December 7, 1941 attack, were still on duty in the Pacific - the first and the last.



































USS Manila Bay (CVE-61) came under enemy air attack on June 23, 1944 east of Saipan. Two fighter-bombers attacked her from dead ahead, dropping four bombs which missed their target ? the Manila Bay was transporting 37 Army P-47 Thunderbolts from 73rd Fighter Squadron, 318th Fighter Group and, as a precautionary and rather unusual move which Admiral Spruance later characterized as "commendable initiative," four of them were launched to fly protective CAP until radar screens were clear of contacts. The Army fighters then flew to Saipan, their intended destination.






This Japanese bomb found its way back, courtesy of the 19th FS.
























































































































Regards Duggy