VMF-524 | Marine Fighting Squadron 524 | Caedentes Superbi

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VMF-524 | Marine Fighting Squadron 524 | Marine Air Group 52 | Caedentes Superbi

Commissioned: 5.10.44
Deactivated: 10.15.45
Artist: Emmet Boyle
Date of Insignia: November 1944
Authorization: HQMC
Aircraft: F4U-1, FG-I, FG-1D

 

Type I | American embroidery on twill. Design by comic strip artist Emmet Boyle.

 

 

 

Type II | American embroidery on wool. Design by comic strip artist Emmet Boyle.

 

 

Marine Fighting Squadron 524 was activated on 10 May 1944 at MCAS, Cherry Point, North Carolina; and its first commanding officer was Captain James J. Powell. His tenure of command lasted but a week before Captain Lewis S. Butler, Jr. succeeded him on 18 May. In yet another change of command, Major Donald H. Sapp assumed command ofVMF-524 on 1 June.

 

While command of the squadron was changing with a rapidity that was unusual even for this period of the war, VMF-524 was ordered from Cherry Point to the auxiliary airfield at Congaree, SC in late May. Slightly four months after it arrived at its new station, the squadron assumed the duties of a replacement training squadron on 16 October. The orders assigning VMF-524 to duty as a replacement training squadron were made prior to the initial deployment of Marine squadrons aboard the Navy's fast carriers, the formation of all-Marine air groups aboard escort carriers dedicated to the air support of amphibious operations or the massive movement of Marine aviation into the Philippines Campaign. Also, Marines had effectively been barred from the European Theater. These circumstances had led to a surplus of Marine squadrons in general, and fighting squadrons in particular, with little chance for combat duty in the near future. As a result, there were far more Marine squadrons in the Pacific, spread from Hawaii to the islands south of the Philippines, than there was useful employment for them, and it would make little sense to move VMF-524 to the Pacific, where there already was an excess of under-employed squadrons. However, despite the low level of combat among the Marine fighter squadrons at the time, casualties still occurred, and aviators finished their combat tours. As a result, VMF-524 could make a greater contribution to the overall war effort as a training squadron than would be possible had it been based on some backwater island in the Pacific.

 

On 23 January, the squadron moved from Congaree to Page Field at Parris Island, South Carolina, and remained there for two weeks before returning to Congaree on 8 February. After three months, the squadron returned to Page Field. It remained there until the end of the war.

 

During this period, command of VMF-524 again changed several times. Major Harlan Rogers assumed command on 13 March. Major Edward R. Dyer, Jr. followed Major Rogers on 9 April, and the squadron's final wartime commanding officer was Major Donald S. Bush, who relieved Major Dyer on 28 April 1945.

VMF-524 was one of the many squadrons deactivated in the almost overnight reductions of America's armed forces. It was deactivated on 15 October 1945 has remained inactive since that date.

 

Sources:

Crowder, Michael J. United States Marine Corps Aviation Squadon Lineage, Insignia & History. Turner Publishing. 2000. pp 160-161.

Millstein, Jeff. U. S. Marine Corps Aviation Unit Insignia 1941-1946. p 97.