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VMF(N)-542 | Marine Night Fighting Squadron 542 | Walt Disney Studios design


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VMF(N)-542 | Marine Night Fighting Squadron 542

 

Commissioned: March 6, 1944
Deactivated: June 30, 1970
Nickname of Unit: none
Artist: Walt Disney Studios
Date of Insignia: 1943
Authorization: HQMC
Aircraft Employed: F6F-3N, F6F-5N
Aerial Combat Record: 18 victories, no aces

 

Deployments
Peleliu - September to November 1944 (F6F-5N)
Philippines - December 1944 to January 1945 (F6F-5N)
Peleliu - January to August 1945 (F6F-5N)


Type I | Silkscreened on canvas. PX patch. | Design by Walt Disney Studios.

 

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Maj Bill Kellum was the first and last CO of VMF(N)-542 - perhaps a unique record in US Marine Corps aviation. He took the squadron through training, then to Ulithi when ground and flight echelons were rejoined. Subsequently, Kellum led the advance echelon to Leyte in February 1945 and into combat over Okinawa. First based at Yontan from early April, under MAG-31, the squadron moved to Chimu in July.

 

2Lts A. J. Arceneau and WW Campbell scored the unit's first victories on April 16, although Campbell went missing 30 days later. The squadron downed nine more raiders before Kellum was relieved by Solomons veteran Bruce Porter in late May. The new skipper scored a rare double kill the night of June 15, first splashing a "Nick'' twin-engine fighter followed by a "Betty" possibly carrying an Ohka suicide plane. It made him one of only two Marine aces (with Wally Sigler) claiming victories in Corsairs and Hellcats. Porter's fighter control. station on the mission was "Handyman," with future Los Angeles radio personality Capt Bill Balance on the scope. Five days earlier 1Lt Fred Hilliard splashed an unidentified hostile and then disappeared, possibly after a collision.

 

With 18 victories, VMF(N)-542 ranked second among the four US Marine Corps and one USAAF nightfighter squadrons of Okinawa's TAF. On the morning of August 8 2Lt Bill Jennings downed a "Tony" 110 miles offshore. This proved to be not only the last nightfighter victory but also the last Marine aerial kill of World War II.

 

The squadron lost four Night Hellcats at Okinawa with three pilots missing. Porter rolled out on September 1 (the day before Japan's formal surrender) when Kellum returned to the squadron. VMF(N)-542 was flying from Yontan on VJ Day, and it served briefly in Japan prior to returning to Con US in the new year.

 

 

Sources:

Millstein, Jeff. U. S. Marine Corps Aviation Unit Insignia 1941-1946. p 102.

Tillman, Barrett. U. S. Marine Corps Fighter Squadrons of World War II. pp 151-152.

 

 

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Brian Dentino

Very cool and thanks again for sharing your items and your research for us here.  I really like this patch and the thought of night fighting in a WWII fighter quite frankly terrifies me.....cannot even imagine!  

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