Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) is a United States Marine Corps aviation unit based at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay. MAG-24 is subordinate to the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and the III Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF).
Mission To provide combat-ready, expeditionary aviation forces capable of short-notice, worldwide employment to a Marine Air Ground Task Force.
Current Subordinate units The following units are subordinate to MAG-24: Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 153 (VMGR-153) – Hercules Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (VMM-268) – Red Dragons Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 363 (VMM-363) – Lucky Red Lions Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 (VMU-3) – Phantoms Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 24 (MALS-24) – Warriors Marine Wing Support Squadron 174 (MWSS-174) – Gryphons
History World War II
Activation (1 March 1942)
MAG-24 was activated along with Marine Aircraft Group 23 (MAG-23) at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa on 1 March 1942 and attached to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (2d MAW) (which had only been activated in Jan 1941). MCAS Ewa was located on southwest Oahu and adjacent Naval Air Station Barbers Point. The intended use of MAG-24 was to "fill the need of dive-bombers in combat areas". MAG-24 was first commanded by Maj I.L. Kimes and consisted of only two squadrons (VMF-211 and VMF-212) mostly on paper. Both MAG-24 and MAG-23 struggled along without aircraft for several months as almost all available assets were diverted to Midway or elsewhere. The only aircraft available to both MAGs were a few overhauled SBD-1s and SBD-2s which were, according to LtCol Claude Larkin: "no good but gave us something to fly". The activation of MAG-24 and MAG-23 were the result of a major organizational overhaul of Marine Aviation which included the activation of MAG-11, 12, and 14 at Camp Kearny, California, MAG-13 in San Diego, and MAG-22 at Midway.
Runway Construction in Efate, New Hebrides (March – May 1942) Two weeks after the activation of MAG-24, on 15 March, the Headquarters Squadron commanded by Capt John K. Little departed for Efate, New Hebrides to help construct an airfield. The importance of Efate to the U.S. war effort was its relative location. Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, stated: "let Efate be the first rung in a ladder from which a step-by-step general advance could be made through the New Hebrides, Solomons, and Bismarcks". Over the next 24 months, the Allies accomplished exactly that. While never attacked by the Japanese at Efate, the efforts to construct the airfield were hampered by a lack of appropriate engineering equipment and malaria. Capt Little and the men of MAG-24 received a letter of commendation from Brig Gen Neal C. Johnson, USA for work completed "in the face of tremendous odds". Simultaneously during this period VMF-212 was transferred from MAG-24 to MAG-21 and deployed from Ewa to Efate over the period of 29 April to 9 June. Efate would be significant in addition to the "first rung". The airfield was used as a place of respite and training for rotating squadrons to the front line. Additionally, the 3rd Marine Division used the island for amphibious rehearsals to incorporating lessons learned from Guadalcanal. The Headquarters Squadron of MAG-24 departed Efate for MCAS Santa Barbara on 24 May and by August 1942 the airfield had a 6000 ft runway capable of supporting combat operations for Guadalcanal.
Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara (June 1942 – January 1943) In the period between May 1942 and December 1943, MAG-24 moved several times as the war in the Pacific escalated. In June 1942, MAG-24 was the first unit at the newly opened MCAS Santa Barbara with only 12 Officers and 125 men. At first, MCAS Santa Barbara was more like an advanced island base, and the air station was initially nicknamed "the Swamp". Heavy rains and the tide often flooded the field requiring 4-wheel drive Jeeps to get anywhere. Pilots would also jokingly ask for clearance to land on the "Santa Barbara Lake". Because a Japanese submarine had just shelled the nearby Ellwood Oil Field on 23 February 1942 the Marines were given a warm welcome as the protectors of Santa Barbara. One week, this warm welcome resulted in 15 weddings being performed by the MAG-24 chaplain. MAG-24 initially stood port/starboard watch to thwart any further attacks from the Japanese by building fighting holes and manning defensive positions on the coast adjoining the airfield. Initially the airfield only had one aircraft, a Grumman J2F Duck, that was loaded with depth charges should a Japanese submarine return. Eventually the Duck was joined by a SNJ-3 Texan, and a SBC-4 Helldiver biplane. However, by the fall of 1942, MAG-24 was composed of VMSB-143, VMSB-144, VMSB-242, VMSB-243, and VMSB-244, all flying the SBD Dauntless. Once appropriately equipped, MAG-24 underwent an accelerated training program in preparation for combat duty. By January 1943, MAG-24 was returning to MCAS Ewa aboard the USS Mormachawk, and then assigned to the 4th Marine Base Defense Aircraft Wing. MAG-24 Headquarters Squadron would remain at MCAS Ewa, but attached personnel found themselves at Midway Atoll, Johnston Atoll, and Palmyra Atoll until it was MAG-24's turn to deploy into the Pacific theater.
Invasion of Bougainville (September 1943 – December 1944)
In September 1943, MAG-24 joined the Pacific campaign when it deployed to Efate, New Hebrides. Efate was the gateway to the Pacific conflict; units remained there for 2–4 weeks for training and receiving replacements. Assigned to Marine Air Wing South Pacific (MASP), MAG-24 was assigned the mission of local air defense awaiting deployment to the front line. While the squadrons assigned to MAG-24 were in constant rotation, the MASP consisted of five fighter squadrons (VMF), three dive-bomber squadrons (VMSB), and three torpedo bombing squadrons (VMTB). Concurrently during the MAG-24 deployment was the landing and occupation of Arundel Island and the isolation of Kolombangara as the Allied forces completed the campaign for New Georgia. During this time, the air war at the front line consisted of fighter sweeps and bombing runs as the Allied forces advanced towards Bougainville. Throughout September and into October the Japanese airfields on the island of Bougainville were bombed steadily and with increasing intensity.
On 17 November 1943, MAG-24 moved to Banika, part of the Russell Islands, where they would support the invasion of Bougainville until the allied airfields were complete on the island objective. The yet to be built airfields on Bougainville would support the "short-legged, sharpshooting", SBD Dauntless dive-bombers and TBF Avenger torpedo-bombers that were needed to sink Japanese ships and destroy the guns at the strategic stronghold of Rabaul. Rabaul was a strategic deep-water harbor that the Japanese captured in 1942, and fortified. The Bougainville campaign, utilizing maneuver warfare, bypassed all but 2,000 of 40,000 Japanese forces on the island to seize a beachhead of 6 by 8 miles at Cape Torokina. Cape Torokina was naturally defendable but mired in swamps and midway between the bulk of enemy forces on the north and south ends of the island. The landing on Bougainville started on 1 November 1943, and 31 TBFs and 8 SBDs completed pre-landing aviation fires, which were commended by the Commander of Southern Pacific Forces for timing, execution, and reducing resistance. The landing force would consist of the 3rd Marine Division (including 3rd Marine Regiment) and the 2nd Raider Regiment. Robert Sherrod, a war correspondent who accompanied Marines from Tarawa to Okinawa, would later comment: "the audacious attack at Cape Torokina caught the Rabaul admirals napping; the landing was in the best hit-'em-where-they-ain’t tradition".
The air war over the island of Bougainville would continue to intensify as significant Japanese air power from Rabaul, combined with reinforcement from enemy carriers, attacked the beachhead on Bougainville. On 8 November alone, more than a hundred Japanese Zeros and bombers attacked the Allied forces. The Allies lost only eight aircraft as compared to 26 Japanese planes. During an ill-conceived attack on nearby Allied ships, the Japanese lost another 41 aircraft on 11 November. Because of these losses, the Japanese pulled all carrier aviation out of the fight for Bougainville on 13 November. By 16 November, the Japanese had lost a total of 70 planes from Rabaul, and 121 from the carrier forces. From this point on, the air war over Bougainville would calm to small scale attacks that occurred mostly at night.
On 9 December, ground crews from VMF-212 and VMF-215 arrived at Cape Torokina a day before completion of the first airstrip. On 21 December, MAG-24 came to Bougainville where the group commander (LtCol William McKittrick) assumed command of Air Operations Bougainville. Two days later the MAG-24 Service Squadron would arrive to help complete the construction of the Piva North airstrip (ultimately Bougainville would host three airfields; Cape Torokina, Piva North, and Piva South). By 5 Jan, the airfields at Bougainville were usable to start striking Rabaul. While the first two missions were unsuccessful, the third on 9 January knocked out the Tobera airfield and 21 Japanese fighters. Beginning 12 January, seven squadrons of SBDs and TBFs from Bougainville along with other allied medium and heavy bombers (over 200 in total) would bomb Rabaul every day. Typically the TBFs would keep the airfields surrounding Rabaul out of commission while the SBDs with their greater precision would destroy the anti-aircraft guns protecting the airfields.
The next task for the aircraft based at Bougainville was the destruction of Japanese shipping. The first occurred on 14 January, where bomber Division Leader Lt Reginald Dover earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for successfully dropping a bomb down the AK Transport Smoke Stake, sinking the ship with one hit. Overall the mission resulted in 29 aircraft destroyed during the dogfights after the strike. The second, on 17 January, would result in the most successful shipping strike since November 1942 when 18 TBFs from VMTB-232 (MAG-24) supported by VMF-211 (MAG-24) reported 15 hits resulting in five Japanese ships sunk. Another attack on the 24th sent another five ships to the bottom. Between the two strikes, the allies also claimed 40 downed enemy aircraft and continued to attrite the Japanese airborne defense. The last significant Japanese air defense occurred on 19 Feb 1944 when 50 Japanese fighters met 140 TBFs, SBDs, F4Us, P-40s, and F6Fs. This final battle resulted in 23 enemy aircraft lost. Due to the loss, the Japanese would pull the majority of their air assets back to Truk on 20 February. By mid-March, the allies would complete strikes without fighter escort. The Rabaul bombing and isolation would continue for 44 months until mid-1945. During this time 10,000 Japanese personnel were killed, and the strategic stronghold of Rabaul would remain isolated from all Japanese lines of communication for the remainder of the war.
Battle of Bougainville Perimeter (March 1944)