108th Operations Group
After an extended period of training in the northeast United States, the personnel boarded the Army transport ship Henry Gibbons and left the wharf at Weehawken, New Jersey on 15 May 1943.During the summer of 1943 the P-47 missions were chiefly as cover for bombers in the Lae-Salamaua area, and for transports carrying supplies to the new mountain locked airstrip at Tsili, only a few miles from the Japanese held Markham Valley.The group met its first air combat over Tsili on 16 August 1943, when two squadrons tangled with the fighter cover of an enemy bomber formation, and shot down three aircraft.Despite the heavy odds and a low fuel supply, and although his mission had been accomplished, Kearby ordered an attack, personally destroying six of the enemy planes.For covering Allied landings and supporting ground forces on New Britain, 16–31 December 1943, the group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation.In 1944 the group began to attack airfields, installations, and shipping in western New Guinea, Ceram, and Halmahera to aid in neutralizing those areas preparatory to the US invasion of the Philippines.In the early spring of 1944, while the group was at Saidor, fighter-bomber work began in earnest with attacks on the Japanese concentrations in the Hansa Bay region just ahead of the advancing Australian troops After 18 months in New Guinea the 348th boarded ship and plane for the Philippines.The group's greatest day, in point of total of enemy planes destroyed, was 14 December 1944 when, in protection of the invasion fleet heading to Mindoro, 5 Japanese planes were shot down, an estimated 75 were destroyed and 20 more damaged, on the airfields of Negros Island only a few minutes flight from the Allied invasion force, which landed on Mindoro the following morning.Two men on guard post were surprised and killed by an enemy patrol, but the camp defense's prevented any breakthrough and the paratroops were finally wiped out by infantry and tanks.From this location the unit entered upon what many of its members consider its most outstanding work of the war, bombing and strafing in close support of ground troops.However, a few miles East of Olongapo stubborn Japanese resistance suddenly had been met in Zigzag Pass, where the road climbed in a series of hairpin turns overlooked by the enemy's positions.American infantry proceeded to direct our pilots to bomb and strafe just ahead of their front line, and for seven days advanced steadily until their mission of scaling off the Bataan Peninsula had been accomplished.One strike, directed by Filipino guerrillas who set off smoke pots to mark tan enemy bivouac area, was later found to have caused 700 Japanese casualties.After another strike west of Fort Stotsenburg, ground troops were able to move in quickly and found 574 Japanese, all killed by the single air attack.In May 1945 the group moved to Floridablanca airfield, west of Fort Stotsenburg, and from there continued attacks on Japanese ground troops, chiefly in the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon.However, there was an abundance of ground and shipping targets in Kyūshū and North China, and the group's P-51s took a constant toll of enemy transportation on water and land before the afternoon of 14 August when the planes of the 348th delivered the last bombs dropped on Japan before the order was given to "cease firing".In the immediate postwar era, the group moved to Itami Airfield, Japan in October 1945 as part of Far East Air Forces, performing occupation duty.On 20 September 2023, the group flew its last mission with the KC-135R, as it transitioned to becoming an associate squadron of the 305th Air Mobility Wing, flying Boeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers.
KC-135 StratotankerIstres ABUnited StatesNew JerseyAir National GuardAir refuelingNew Jersey Air National GuardJoint Base McGuire-Dix-LakehurstNeel E. Kearby108th WingMcGuire AFBU.S. Air ForceAir Mobility CommandWorld War IIRepublic P-47 ThunderboltSouthwest Pacific TheaterMedal of Honor141st Air Refueling SquadronKC-46A150th Special Operations Squadron170th Air Refueling SquadronNeel KearbyFifth Air ForceUnited States Distinguished Unit CitationsBob RowlandGeorge DavisMitchel FieldArmy transport ship Henry GibbonsWeehawkenEuropean theatre of warPanama CanalBrisbaneNew GuineaPort MoresbyNoemfoorNew Britain460th Fighter SquadronSouthwest Pacific areaLieutenant Colonel Neel KearbyDistinguished Unit CitationHalmaheraPhilippinesFinschhafenHansa BayTacloban Airfieldgroup of B-25 bombersArmy Air ForceManilaJapanese capture of the PhilippinesMindoroNegros IslandB-24 LiberatorClark FieldBurauenNorth American P-51 MustangsSan MarcelinoSubic BayOlongapoBataanLingayenfirebombBataan PeninsulaFort StotsenburgFrench IndochinaHainan, ChinaFormosaRyukyusIe ShimaKyūshūFar East Air ForcesW.D. DunhamWilliam M. BanksWalter G. Benz Jr.G.A. Davis Jr.108th Fighter GroupNew Jersey National GuardNewark Municipal Airport119th Fighter SquadronMercer AirportTrenton, New JerseyDelaware National GuardNew Castle, Delaware52d Fighter WingNew York National Guardwing base organization108th Fighter-Bomber WingTurner Air Force BaseStrategic Air Command149th Fighter SquadronVirginia Air National Guard153d Fighter SquadronMississippi Air National Guardfighter bomber108th Fighter-Interceptor Wingair defenseAir Defense CommandNorth American F-86E Sabres108th Tactical Fighter WingBerlin Crisis of 1961Boeing KC-135 StratotankersBoeing C-32s305th Air Mobility WingBoeing KC-46 PegasusNational GuardI Fighter CommandNew York Fighter WingBoston Fighter WingV Fighter Command310th Bombardment Wing309th Bombardment Wing85th Fighter Wing150th Air Refueling SquadronBradley FieldWestover FieldProvidence AirportJackson Airfield (7 Mile Drome)Finschhafen AirfieldSaidor AirfieldWakde AirfieldKornasoren AirfieldSchouten IslandsTanauan AirfieldFloridablanca AirfieldIe Shima AirfieldOkinawaItami Airfield