VMF-225

[walika]

VMF-225

 

Established at MCAS Mojave on January 11, 1943

 

Aircraft: F4F-3, F4U-1, SNJ-3, SNJ-4

Deployments: Marianas - Aug 1944 to May 1945 (F4U-1)

 

 

Type 1 | Silk screened on canvas. Walt Disney Studios from a design by Lt. Jack Butler.

 

 

 

While stationed at Mojave, one of the squadron members wrote to the Walt Disney Studios and requested a squadron insignia design. The Disney Studios-designed "Kangaroo" emblem was [subsequently] discarded as being too cute. In its place the design drawn by Lt. Jack Butler became the official squadron logo."

 

Source: Millstein, Jeff. U. S. Marine Corps Aviation Unit Insignia 1941-1946. p 59.

 

 

 

Type II | Decal on leather.

 

 

 

 

A veteran of VMF-11 l's frustrating Samoan venture in 1942, Capt Jack Amende was described by a contemporary as "bright and witty." He built his own squadron - VMF-225 - from the ground up at Mojave, and by June 1943 he owned two Wildcats and two Corsairs, retaining both types to September, after which enough F4Us were available. Maj Jim Embry took the squadron to Ewa, Hawaii, at the end of October 1943 and proceeded to Espiritu Santo in March 1944. In anticipation of the Marianas campaign, VMF-225 left for Eniwetok in June. In July the ground echelon established facilities on Guam a week after D-Day, with the flight section landing in early August to provide local air defense.

In a rare evolution, Amende resumed command in early September, remaining almost until year's end. Combat action was rare, with the squadron losing a plane and pilot on October 8 and two more the next month. Three more Corsairs were written off through to the end of the deployment in March.

On January 14, 1945 2Lt Henry Stewart caught a Nakajima B6N "Jill" torpedo-bomber north of Guam for the squadron's only aerial victory.

At the end of its tour VMF-225 was briefly led by Maj Hunter Reinburg, who had previously undertaken a lengthy tour commanding VMF-122. In May Maj John Reeder's unit was withdrawn to Mojave for CQs, Amende having proceeded to command VMF-217 embarked in USS Wasp (CV-18). VMF-225 was still at Mojave when hostilities ended in August 1945, however. Source: Tillman, Barrett. U. S. Marine Corps Fighter Squadrons of World War II.

 

 

MCAS Mohave - 1943

 

 

By January 1, 1943 there were thirty-two squadrons under training at MCAS Mojave. By early 1944 all tactical squadrons aboard were fighter squadrons flying the F4F Wildcat.

 

 

 

 

 

Today, MCAS Mojave is known as the Mojave Air and Space Port (IATA: MHV, ICAO: KMHV), also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Centre, located in Mojave, California, at an elevation of 2,801 feet (854 m). It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17, 2004.

 

Flight testing activities have been centerd at Mojave since the early 1970s, due to the lack of populated areas surrounding the airport. It is also favored for this purpose due to its proximity to Edwards Air Force Base, where the airspace is restricted from ground level to an unlimited height, and where there is a supersonic corridor. Mojave is also the home of the National Test Pilot School, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic/The Spaceship Company.

 

History of MCAS Mojave

 

 

VMF-225 F4U-4 | USS Cabot (CVL-28).

 

 

 

 

F4U | Guam, December, 1944.

 

 

 

 

The actual plane from which this artist's rendering was produced.