July 1950
The First Few Weeks
by
William J. “Sandy” Colton
On 25 June 1950 the North Korean Forces invaded South Korea. Armed and supplied by Communists there was no power to stop these hordes.
The United Nations Security Council met and called upon the United States Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
The United States Air Force called upon the Fifth Air Force and the Far East Air Forces with bases in Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines.
The FEAF had many types of aircraft and a limited number of personnel who were experienced in more than their own job. In Japan FEAF had F-51’s, F-82’s, and B-26’s.
In Okinawa there were F-80A’s and F-80B’s and in the Philippines there were the new F-8OC’s and the old reliable C-54, C-47 and C-46 aircraft of the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron, 347th Troop Carrier Wing.
On 15 July 1950 the 51st Fighter Squadron (Provisional) was formed from units of the 18th Fighter Bomber Group from Clark AFB, Philippines. This unit was airlifted to King Two (K-2) airstrip five miles north of Taegu, South Korea. They were armed with F-51 Mustangs and were composed of Officers and Airmen of the 12th Fighter-Bomber Squadron. This project was called “Dallas Squadron.”
Second Lt. Billie R. Crabtree was the first casualty of the unit on 27 July when he dove his F-51 too close to his target.
On July 25th, Lt. Billie Crabtree, a sharp young 2nd Lieutenant with the 12th Squadron was the first Korean War casualty of the 18th Wing. "He was working over a railroad on the west coast near Kwangju, trying to skip-bomb a locomotive in a tunnel. He apparently started his pullout a fraction of a second too late for the heavy load he was carrying, for he mushed into the top of the hill at the same time that his bombs went off inside the tunnel. He wrapped his Mustang into a great ball of fire. Two days later the North Koreans had the tunnel open and usable again,” recalled his friend, Lt. Col. Bud Biteman years later.
The 51st Fighter Squadron was dubbed “The Flying Tigers of Korea” by Korean president Syngman Rhee. They were allowed to paint shark teeth on the engine cowling of the planes after the AVG of World War II.
This unit went to K-2 located at Taegu. On 2 August they were greeted by advanced elements of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Group main body. This was short lived as on 4 August the whole Dallas Squadron and the Headquarters section of the Fighter Group were evacuated to Ashiya Air Force Base in southern Japan.
The 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron had already started to operate from Ashiya when Dallas got there.
The Headquarters section of the group and the 67th Fighter Bomber Squadron were moved from Clark Air Force Base, Philippines on 31 July 1950 and were set down at Ashiya.
The 18th Fighter-Bomber Group was attached to the 6002nd Tactical Support Wing which was newly organized from personnel in Japan and newly arriving personnel in the theater.
Colonel Curtis R. Low was named wing commander and his staff included: Capt. Thomas Shockley, Adjutant, Lt. Col. Donald H. Lynch, Major Charles D. Yankhower as Operations and Intelligence Officer’s respectfully, and Lt. Col. Kendall E. Carlson, as Base Maintenance Officer.
The group operated out of Ashiya AFB, 100 miles from Pusan, SK. Their Frag Order read anything from North of the 38th Parallel to Taegu and the Naktong River.
Once, pilots of the 67th were accused of bombing an airfield In Manchuria.
Most of their missions were Armed Recce’s of four to six hours duration. Frequently the aircraft would take off from Japan, hit the target, land at K-2 or K-13 (Pohang) and operate out of there until dark and return to Ashiya after their last strike. This put a strain on transports as mechanics, armorers and sometimes intelligence personnel had to be flown to K-2 or K-13 to handle the load as personnel there were inadequate.
During the brief thirty-four days the group stayed in Ashiya, it had four casualties of killed or missing in action. There were many ground loops either from battle damage or from existing weather conditions. A strong cross wind always seemed to prevail over Ashiya’s one main runway which emptied out into the Japan Sea on the south end, and there was a town on the north end which made landing and taking off a cautious job. Conditions were crowded and everyone had to work out of packing cases—officers and line personnel alike.
The Ashiya Base Supply did its utmost to fulfill the needs of the group and its supporting elements.
The North American F-51 Mustangs received at Ashiya and at K-2 were aircraft which had belonged to National Guard units in the states and aircraft which were stored at Far East Air Materiel Command (FEAMCOM) in Japan.
The National Guard aircraft were loaded on the “USS BOXER,” aircraft carrier complete with pilots, twenty five in all. Those pilots were affectionately dubbed “The Boxer Boys” by the group pilots.
The group’s long-range recce’s proved to be useful. Maj. Mullins, Capt. Price and Capt. Hoagland caught the first YAK fighter on the ground for the first aircraft destroyed on the ground for the group.
The operations of the group did not change much from World War II.
They had two squadrons (one squadron under strength)—the 12th and the 67th Fighter-Bomber Squadrons.
The 12th Squadron went out as MONOLOGUE and the 67th Squadron had ELSEWHERE as its call sign.
The Flights—usually four Mustangs flying as a unit—were designated A, B, C, D and E, etc. or Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog and Easy.
Able flight was usually the first flight off in the day.
Later, the 12th Squadron started at Mike and went to Zebra and the 67th Squadron started at Able and went to Love.
Overall combat operations of the group did not change much from World War II.
The ground controller, in a jeep (usually a USAF pilot), would call an L-5, with the radio call sign of “Mosquito” and tell him of a target for fighters.
“Mosquito Wildwest” would call the flight leader, give him the coordinates and his flight would go in for the kill.
These F-51 flights were like an Aerial Guard duty—one flight would relieve the other. When operating from Japan “Elsewhere Easy” flight (a flight of four aircraft) would report to JOC with a call sign of “Mellow” at 1300 hrs. JOC would, in turn, tell the flight to report to “Mosquito Wildwest” in Area # ___, give the coordinates, and the flight would go to that area, relieve the preceding flight, be it USAF, Navy, Marines or Australian and report to “Mosquito Wildwest” and usually stay in that area for one to two hours, then the Air Controller would take over.
Sometimes the F-51’s worked with just the TACP or radio jeep. When the flights were going to and from Korea they would check in with “Mellow” so they would know if any aircraft were missing.
JOC—Joint Operations Center—was in 5th Air Force (Advanced) Headquarters at Taegu, then Pusan and on 15 September 1950, the center moved back to Taegu, then on to Seoul.
After Seoul some of the Center personnel went to Anju.
When the big winter Communists offensive started, JOC went back to Taegu. JOC had complete control of every ground controller, Air Controller and every United Nations Aircraft in the Korean theater. This also was a cross-check for any missing aircraft.