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P-38 Hardstand
By John Stanaway
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a continuation of John's series
on Photo Recon Squadrons, which he began in
last month's newsletter.]
There were no photo groups that I can
find attached to the 7th Air Force in the Central Pacific. However, at least
one squadron was assigned directly to the 7th when the 28th PRS was detached
from its European theater-bound group to give yeoman service in the Pacific.
Originally assigned to the North
European-bound 7th PRS in the middle of 1943, the 28th was originally based at
Peterson Field in Colorado before it was transferred to the 9th PRS at Will
Rogers Field in Oklahoma late in the year. In January 1944 the squadron was
assigned to Kipapa Airfield in Hawaii, and from there sent detachments to
service the 7th Air Force on Kwajalein in June – September 1944, Saipan in July
1944 through May 1945, Peleliu October 1944 through April 1945. Other
detachments operated from Okinawa and Ie Shima from April through June 1945.
Joe Oakley was in the 28th at the end of
the war and related a story of the move to Okinawa that illustrates the
affection with which the P-38 was held by crews of ships stationed around the
island. Oakley had a friend in the Coast Guard by the name of Miles Nesbitt,
Quartermaster, USCG, who was landing troops from the USS Calaway when a kamikaze
struck the ship.
Nesbitt and his shipmates were in a
state of paralysis on their ship (ATA-12, USS Leonard Wood) when another
kamikaze was sighted through the smoke and carnage of the stricken Calaway.
Every man on the Leonard Wood saw the approaching enemy aircraft approaching
with a sickening whine straight for them, and they all saw themselves as a stack
of G. I. insurance policies.
However, just before they would have
been hit by the suicide plane, a lone P-38 appeared out of nowhere and fired an
accurate burst that blew the desperate enemy into small fiery pieces. Both
Nesbitt and Oakley saluted the deft Lightning pilot, assigning him a place in
P-38 heaven.
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I don't know anything
about flight simulator software, nor do I know if a piece of software downloaded
from the UK will work in the US, but I've been hearing about this new 
