731st Bomb Sqdn (Light – Night Attack) – 452nd Bomb Wing
On Wed, 12 Nov 1997
Email updated 30 Jun 1999
"Arthur L. Napolin" wrote:
Thanks for your mail. Sorry for the delay in responding but I've been
out of town.
The iron grating you refer to at K-2 (known as PSP or pierced steel
planking) chewed up the tires of many landing aircraft, especially
when it was wet. Our B-26s had lots of tire changes at Taegu.
Our B-26 squadron identification was the 731st Bomb Squadron (Light -
Night Attack). We were one of four squadrons ( including the 728th,
the 729th and the 730th) which was recalled to active duty on 10 August
1950 with the 452nd Bomb Wing based at Long Beach, CA. The 731st
squadron was assigned to the 3rd Bomb Wing stationed at Iwakuni, Japan
and flew night attack missions along with the 8th and 13th old time
active duty squadrons. The other three 452nd squadrons were based at
Miho, Japan and flew daylight missions until the late Spring of 1951
when all B-26 combat operations were at night.
My first mission in Korea was flown on 23 October 1950.
After completing my missions I returned to the US in June of 1951 and
was assigned as a B-25 flight instructor at Enid AFB, OK. In May 1952
my 21 month recall was up and I returned to civilian life.
Although we were still an enthusiastic bunch, and sort of young, most
of our people having served during WWII were about 5 years older than
the rest of the 3rd Bomb Wing. I was almost 29 years old when I was
recalled.
Books about the 452nd Wing and the 731st Squadron that may be of
interest include:
Wally Mc Dannel, "Fly Till You Die", 452nd Bomb Wing (Light), Turner
Publishing Co, Paducah, KY 1994.
Chester L. Blunk, "Every Man a Tiger", The 731st USAF Night Intruders
over Korea, Sunflower University Press, Manhattan, KS 1982
Chester L. Blunk and Andrew G. Anderson, "Involuntary", The Saga of
the 731st Bomb Squadron (L-NA), Hiroshima Publishing Co., Hiroshima,
Japan 1996.
Renaming
731st BS re designated 90th BS in Jun 51