The Bauer Memoir

VMD-154 History

The following history of VMD-154 was written by squadron member William E. Bauer in 1983, with an epilogue added in 2004. Bill was a founder of VMD-154 Association and helped reunite many veterans of VMD-154 by planning and hosting the first squadron reunion in 1982. We are deeply indebted to Bill Bauer for his on-going dedication to the squadron.


Marine Photographic Squadron VMD-2 [later designated VMD-154] was formed approximately April 1, 1942 at the Naval Air Station, North Island, San Diego, California. I joined this squadron April 4, 1942 when it was made up of approximately 20 men. It was decommissioned at the Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station, Kinston, North Carolina on September 10, 1945. I along with the Sgt. Major destroyed all the squadron records as ordered by the squadron Commanding Officer.

This squadron consisted of over 400 enlisted men in addition to over 30 officers. Our mission was to photograph enemy bases, airfields, etc., put the jigsaw pieces together, and report our findings to General Headquarters. HQ would use this information to schedule bombing runs, etc. We had six B-24 Liberators to accomplish our mission. We are credited to discovering an enemy air base on Munda Island previously overlooked by everyone else.

On October 13, 1942, an advance echelon of one officer and sixteen enlisted men left San Diego and proceeded to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. Their mission was to pick a location and set up the camp prior to the landing of some 340 men two months later. The six planes and their crews would fly to the same destination since the CBs had the airfield in operation. This airfield was constructed after clearing away many coconut trees. The French plantation owners should have gotten wealthy when Uncle Sam paid them for their trees.

On December 1, 1942, approximately 340 enlisted men and 12 officers boarded the Dutch motorship Bloemfontaine in San Diego and left the USA. We zigzagged across the Pacific and arrived at Noumea January 1, 1943. We were allowed to go ashore for several hours where we all ate coconuts and French pastry until we got the drizzling. We then proceeded on to Espiritu Santo. The next several days were spent unloading our gear and provisions. Most of the men worked three shifts unloading the ship while the rest of us were digging foxholes and preparing for bombing raids or a Jap invasion that did not happen.

While unloading the ship, we got to be such experts that we also unloaded candy, whiskey, etc. that did not belong to us. Our "ill-gotten gains" were taken ashore and buried. We did this in retaliation for the ill way we were treated aboard ship. The ship's crew finally discovered what had happened and reported it to our CO. Our CO called everyone together and said all of our "treasure" must be returned this day. He stated no one would be punished becaused he heard how we were mistreated aboard ship. Most of the treasure was returned, but we refused to reload it aboard ship. There was one infuriated Dutch Captain!

Our only confrontation with the enemy was every evening at 10 P.M. a lone plane would fly over the island. He scared the Hell out of us at first and sent everyone hurrying to their foxholes. We called him "Piss Call Charlie." He would drop a few bombs and leave. One night a bomb hit between our camp and the Evacuation Hospital next to us. He killed a cow and tore down a few trees. We erected a monument to the cow and it remained until we left for the states 14 months later in February 1944. All at once, Charlie stopped his nightly calls, and we missed him. He never did return so someone either shot him down or he had to move farther north and out of our range.

In December 1942, just before the main part of the squadron arrived at Santo, one of our B-24s was returning to Henderson Airfield on Guadalcanal from Munda Island when 8 Jap Zero Fighters jumped it. Our plane was shot up so badly it had to crash land at Henderson Field. Our aerial gunners shot down 2 planes and 2 others were driven off and smoking. The Japs came "head on" because our plane was flying so low over the ocean the Japs couldn't come up under the B-24 for a vulnerable hit. Our pilot, Gordon E. Gray was hit in the arm and a bullet creased his head plowing a furough. Other than that, he was unhurt, but our radio man, Harry Schaub from KC was shot in the eye and received a medical discharge.

Jack Tarver, one of the aerial gunners who will be at our reunion shot down one of the Jap planes. Our B-24 was so badly shot up and replacement parts were scarce, but it was finally back in operation before we came home. In all, our planes flew some 300 missions in the combat area but engaged the enemy only a few times.

We lost one plane, but not by enemy action. One morning each week at daylight a plane would take off for Henderson Airfield for a weeks operation. On this particular morning, the plane took off as usual, but just as it was getting airborne, it suddenly nose dived into the ocean. Everyone aboard perished, and we never did know for sure what caused the accident. There was "scuttlebut talk" that the pilot refused to take the mission, but our CO insisted so he went. I was in charge of the Post Office at this time, and immediately after this mishap, we got a letter for one of the aerial gunners that his grandmother had died in Toledo leaving him over $50,000. That was a fortune in those days, but the poor guy didn't live to see any of it.

We were overseas 14 months before being relieved by VMD-254 and returning to the states in February 1944. We were the first Marine Photographic Squadron to go into combat. Of course, only the plane crews seen any action as the rest of us were tending our base at Santo.

In 1943, Guadalcanal was supposed to be "secured" or free of Japs. The Army had replaced the Marine Corps so it should have been safe from combat. The Army would have been wiped out had not the Marines turned the tide of battle and won the Canal after months of hard fighting. Anyway, while the planes were in the air, the ground crews had nothing to do but take it easy till their plane returned. One of the crew named Gilmore took off to the hills to have a look around. After a couple hours in the jungle, he came upon a shack. Passing by the window, he looked in and seen 5 Japs eating their rations. He jumped behind some cover and started shouting at them to come out. They stayed inside and probably were as scared as he said he was. The Japs probably figured they were surrounded. Finally, they ran out the door and up the trail. Gilmore had only a .45 automatic but pulled down on one and the Jap fell. He dropped a second one before the rest were out of range. After the Japs went down, Gilmore rushed up and unloaded his .45 in them to be sure they were dead. He was the hero of the camp for a long time until he was transferred out of our squadron to the combat area up north of the Canal. At this time, the Marines were suffering heavy losses so we lost about 25 men to the combat area. Gilmore's escapade didn't surprise us much because he was known as a rough and tough Marine.

After returning to the states in February 1944, all of us went home on 30 day furloughs. Upon returning to our base at Camp Kearney, San Diego, the squadron was split in half. One half remained in VMD-154, and the remaining veterans were transferred to other bases. Some went to the East Coast. We immediately began getting new men and training for another tour of duty overseas. By September 1944, we were again ready to go overseas, but I got a 15 day furlough and came home. When I got back to Camp Kearney, we had lost our "beloved B-24s." The Navy pulled rank on us, and they were sent to Florida. We could not go overseas so remained in the states and waiting for orders. Finally in December, we were told we would be transported to the Auxiliary Marine Corps Station in Kinston, North Carolina. We reached Kinston in February and soon after received a new type of airplane, the F7F Fighter. This was a new plane that had not been in combat and was unproven. Again, we had to retrain the pilots and crews. Soon after, Germany surrendered, and then the Japs quit.

Now the big job left to do since the war was over was to discharge the men. This was done by using a point system, i.e. each month of service = 1 point; each month of overseas duty = 1 point; each campaign (battle) = 5 points. This point system only applied to the reserve Marines and not the ones who signed up for four years. Most of the Marines were reserves so immediately after the end of the war those reserves having the most points were allowed to return home. Every couple of weeks the number of points required for discharge would be lowered. By September 1945, only 5 men remained in VMD-154. All others were either discharged or transferred to other squadrons. On September 10, the remaining 5 men were transferred to VMD-954. Before being transferred, the Sgt. Major Jack Buffalano and I were instructed to burn all of VMD-154 records which we accomplished. I remained in VMD-954 until shortly before I was discharged on January 25, 1946, having served four years.

I was very proud to be a Marine. I was made a MTSgt with less than 3 years active service and that was a special honor, having no special qualifications.

Semper Fi!!

Epilogue

I enlisted on January 26, 1942 for 4 years. I took the exam and walked to Union Station in Kansas City. About 30 men at the same time left on the train to San Diego, 3 days' ride. I took the physical again in San Diego and got my GI clothes. I was making $21.00 a month minus what they took out for toiletries. I washed and ironed my own clothes. Boot camp lasted about 7 weeks, and then I went to North Island. There we took exams for the type of work we were qualified for. It took 4-5 days of miscellaneous tasks, cleaning up on 4th April 1942. The Sgt. called out 5 names: Jim Blackburn, Bill Bauer, Ray Benson, Purvis Benvie, and one other.

We marched down to VMD-2 and were turned over to Sgt. Major John Ward. He called Bill [Bauer] to be in the office next morning at 0800 for clerical duty. The others were given miscellaneous duty. The first day, April 5, we had only 2 officers in the outfit: Capt. Elliott Bard and Capt. John Thomas Lanvar Daniel Gabbert. Gabbert was the only Marine officer with a moustache. He was a happy and dapper man, always with a smile on his face.

In the office was Sgt. Major John Everet Ward. He had two PFC's working for him as clerks. One name was Oscar Jerome Deavours. I don't remember the other one, but Ward transferred him out of the squadron after a short while. After Deavours made Corporal, he was sent to OCS and came back to us as 2nd Lt. He, along with Edgar Dickson, made Capt. while we were on Santos. All of the officers used to come in to my mail room and censor letters. All I did was put a "Censored" stamp over the officers initials and mail it out. When I came in to VMD-2, we had 2 flying Sergeants. One was Albert Bibee, and the other was Redmond. We had two 2A2s, J2F-5, and an SNJ-4. Since we had only about 20 enlisted men, I was on guard duty down at the dark and lonesome air field in the Boon Docks. I was close to John Ward, at least as close in relationship as a Sgt. Major and Pvt. could get. I did all kinds of miscellaneous wrk for him including washing a car he bought from John Chambers. He gave me 25 cents. It was extra money for me since I was making $21.00 a month. One pay day , I got $5 for two weeks and the next $10.

John Ward was always my perfect Marine. He was born in 1898 and served in World War I for 2 years. Then when the war was over, he joined the Marine Corps. I know this for a fact because I kept track of the service records in our squadron. I knew everything about everybody except how to write this information which is terrible. I used to call Ward sir because I was so used to it. He would soon put me straight about it. He said he was no officer.