USS Mission Bay (CVE-59) and USS Wake Island (CVE-65) steamed from Staten Island on February 20, 1944, loaded with Army personnel and one hundred P-47 pursuit planes bound for the China-Burma-India Theater. Accompanied by destroyer escorts USS Trumpeter, USS Straub, and USS Gustafson, the convoy formed Task Force Group 27.2. At sea for a biblical “forty days and forty nights,” according to recollections of my father, then-Cpl. James H. (“Hank”) Mills, Mission Bay went down and around the coast to South America, crossed the Atlantic, and then steamed around the coast of Africa and up to the Arabian Sea. Men aboard the carriers were assigned to cramped quarters with little to keep them occupied other than to read, play cards, and sleep. The monotony was interrupted when the carriers crossed the equator, and a traditional line-crossing ceremony got under way to commemorate the occasion. Hank remembered stops for refueling and fresh provisions at Recife, Brazil, at Cape Town, South Africa, and at Cape Diego, Madagascar, before docking at Karachi, India (now part of Pakistan) on March 29.

By February 16, 1945, thirty B-25s from all four squadrons of the 1^st Bomb Group—called the “Gambay Group—had converged at Hanchung for a huge raid against railroad yards at Shihkiachwang (Shijiazhuang), Hopeh (Hebei) Province, on the following day. Because their fighter escort failed to join them, the bombers separated into two elements and diverted to alternate targets in the big Yellow River bend. The first element turned south to attack railroad yards at Yunchen. The 1^st Bomb Squadron’s Mitchells formed "Benton" flight, and 4^th and 3^rd Squadron planes made up "Charlotte." Nearly all bombs missed their targets and landed in rice paddies or villages outside the target area. The second element was slightly more effective. The 2^nd Bomb Squadron and remainder of the 3^rd Squadron, forming "Akron" and "Detroit" flights, turned north and attacked railroad yards, tracks, and barracks at Linfen. After a delay caused by foul weather, the four squadrons flew a successful joint mission against machine shops and rails at Taiyuan on February 21.

The Chinese-American Composite Wing officially entered combat on Thursday, November 4, 1943, when three 2^nd Bomb Squadron B-25s flew on a mission out of Erh Tong airfield at Kweilin (now Guilin) down to the coast. In a joint raid with Mitchells of the 11^th (“Sky Dragons”) Bomb Squadron, 341^st Bomb Group, 69^th Composite Wing, 14^th Air Force, this was a sea sweep to hit Japanese shipping at Swatow Harbor. One of the Mitchells successfully bombed and strafed an enemy cargo vessel and sank it, the second crash-landed but all aircrew members survived, and the third went down and all aboard were lost.

Pilot of a B-25H, A/C #719, Capt. Mark T. Seacrest led the 3rd Bomb Squadron element, along with three 4th Bomb Squadron planes, on a joint mission from Hanchung. Their objective was to bomb and strafe the Yellow River Bridge. Providing close escort were eight 3rd Fighter Group P-40s that did their job well., despite being attacked by Japanese fighters, and eight 312th Fighter Wing P-47s as top cover that "hit the deck."