| abstract
| - The history of the 45th Fighter Squadron goes back to 22 November 1940, when the War Department constituted the 45th Pursuit Squadron (fighter). The unit was activated at Wheeler Field, Hawaii on 1 December 1940, where they served as part of the 15th Pursuit Group in defense of Hawaii. When the Japanese launched their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the 45th PS suffered heavy losses, as did the other squadrons in the 15th Group. Two-thirds of the P-36 and P-40 aircraft at Wheeler Field were destroyed right on the ground. Earlier, the planes had been stripped of ammunition and fuel, and taken out of their protective earthen revetments because of potential for sabotage in these protected but difficult-to-see areas. Parked in the open, the planes were easy targets for the Japanese pilots as they strafed and bombed the field. Everyone on the ground scrambled for cover as the field was being hit, while at the same time pilots were trying to get their planes off the ground without too much success. However, Lieutenants George Welch and Kenneth Taylor, two pilots from the 47th PS whose planes were at Haleiwa Field at the time, were able to get their Curtis P-40B Tomahawks into the air soon after the attack began. Clearly outnumbered, they still managed to shoot down six Japanese planes. Meanwhile, Captain Aaron Tyler, commander of the 45th PS at Wheeler, ordered his crews to pull out all the undamaged planes they could find and have them fueled and armed. Less than a dozen aircraft were available, but the pilots who were selected to fly wasted no time boarding their planes. They quickly took off, hoping to tangle with the Japanese fighters. After searching the area for almost an hour, all they saw as they flew over Pearl Harbor were the burning ships and immense damage. By this time, the Japanese planes were long gone, having already headed back to their carrier at sea. In the days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the pilots and ground personnel of the 45th PS had the job of cleaning up the mess at Wheeler Field. Among the first things they did was put the remaining aircraft back into their revetments. After moving their flight operations to different fields in Hawaii, the 45th PS was back in the air conducting daily air defense patrols over the islands. These long flights put a heavy toll on the P-36s and P-40Bs that the pilots flew, so they requested new aircraft. The pilots soon received new P-40E Warhawks and the tricycled-gear P-39 Airacobra. On 12 February 1942, the squadron was redesignated the 45th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor). Although the 45th PS still had as its primary mission the conducting of aerial patrols, it was also given the duties of conducting combat training for pilots. Three months later, on 15 May 1942, the antiquated term "pursuit" was dropped and the squadron was redesignated 45th Fighter Squadron. Over the next two years, the squadron would be involved primarily with combat training, and the job of air defense would take on a secondary role. The 45th FS was sent to the Central Pacific in 1943 for combat operations against Japanese forces. Then, on 6 April 1944, the squadron returned to Mokuleia Field, Hawaii, and began training for very-long-range (VLR) bomber escort missions. By this time, the pilots in the squadron were flying P-47s. Later in the year they would acquire the longer range P-51 Mustangs. In January 1945, the 45th FS was ordered into combat, along with the other assigned squadrons in the 15th FG. They left Hawaii for Saipan in the Marianas Islands, staying there until the Marines on Iwo Jima could secure a landing strip. The first squadron to arrive at Iwo Jima was the 47th FS on the morning of 6 March, with the 45th landing the next day. They supported Marine ground units by bombing and strafing cave entrances, trenches, troop concentrations, and storage areas. Before the month was over, the 45th FS began strikes against enemy airfields, shipping and military installations in the Bonin Islands. Flying its first VLR mission to Japan on 7 April 1945, the 45th FS provided fighter escort for the B-29 Superfortresses that attacked the Nakajima aircraft plant near Tokyo. In late April and early May that year, the 45th struck airfields on the Japanese home island of Kyushu to hold back the enemy's Kamikaze attacks against the American invasion force on Okinawa. The squadron also attacked enemy troop trains, small factories, gun positions, and hangars in the Bonin Islands and Japan. During the summer of 1945, the 45th FS was assigned to the 20th Air Force and continued its fighter sweeps against Japanese airfields and other tactical targets. It continued to fly long-range B-29 escort missions to Japanese cities until the end of the war. After the surrender of Japan, the squadron remained on Iwo Jima until 25 November 1945, when it transferred to Bellows Field, Hawaii. On 8 February 1946, the squadron moved to Wheeler Field, where it stayed until inactivated on 15 October 1946.
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