VMF-123 (“Eight Balls”)
After carrier qualification aboard USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) off Hawaii, Vaughn shipped out in late 1944 and landed on Ulithi Atoll as a replacement pilot. In Feb ruary, he was transferred to the fleet carrier USS Bennington (CV-20), for duty with Marine Fighting Squad was organized at Camp Kearney, Calif., in 1942. Its unusual nickname came after its second combat tour.

The squadron had not contacted any Japanese planes. As soon as it moved in, air opposition disappeared, but when it was relieved, the enemy would return in strength. Morale was low, and squadron members were beginning to feel like a bunch of eight balls. The insignia shows an eight ball with a cartoon character look ball.

VMF-123 had been aboard Bennington since January, escorting torpedo plane strikes against targets in the Tokyo area. On 19 Feb., the squadron provided air support for the landing on Iwo Jima and interdiction sorties against Chi Chi Jima.

No-Man’s-Land
Chi Chi Jima in 1945 was a 10-mile-square, heavily fortified island located in the strategically important Bonins, part of a chain of islands that lead directly to Tokyo Bay, 500 miles to the north. Together with its more famous neighbor Iwo Jima, 150 miles south, Chi Chi Jima was considered to be an integral part of Japan and was to be defended to the last man.

James Bradley, an author whose works chronicle the WW II action in the Pacific Theater, wrote that “Bonin” loosely trans Chi Jima represented for Ameri can fliers, as they sought to isolate it prior to and during the battle for Iwo Jima.

The island was defended by 25,000 Imperial Japanese soldiers and sailors, who painstakingly constructed a maze of defensive positions. Col Presley M. Rixey, commanding the occupation forces after the surrender, wrote: “The emplacements have to be seen to be appreciated. Concrete emplacements high in the mountains with steel door openings are too numerous to count. The Japanese plan was to permit an entrance into the harbor or onto the airfield, then to give us the ‘works.’ ”

A crack antiaircraft unit of Emperor Hirohito’s Imperial Guard was assigned to the island. They were equipped with new radar-aimed guns that soon earned a fearsome reputation for accuracy. On 18 Feb., a 24-plane fighter sweep hit the island. Japanese antiaircraft fire knocked down five fighters and a torpedo bomber.

No Mercy
Vice Admiral Kunizo Mori was the senior tactical commander on the island; how ever, Lieutenant General Yoshio Tachi including the disposition of captive airmen. Tachibana was a veteran of China, where the Japanese refused to acknowledge captured soldiers as prisoners of war. In fact, the Japanese considered surrender disgraceful, and anyone captured should forfeit all human rights. “Honorable warriors should never become prisoners!”

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