SSgt. Otto W. Hutchinson was one of the vast numbers of China veterans who were heading home. After the formal surrender was signed and the Chinese-American Composite Wing was disbanded in early September 1945, men of the 3^rd Bomb Squadron were officially assigned to other units in preparation for their return to the Zone of the Interior.  Hutchinson was transferred to the 26^th Fighter Squadron, 51^st Fighter Group, 69^th Composite Wing stationed at Kunming. Along with others attached to the same unit, he was sent to Barrackpore Field near Calcutta before moving to Replacement Depot No. 3 (also known as Camp Kanchrapara), one of the processing centers for troops heading home. Then they spent a few days at Camp Hialeah, a staging for troops awaiting departure, before boarding SS Marine Angel on November 16. A Thanksgiving feast, overflowing scuppers, and collision with a whale were events noted in the ship’s newsletter. Arriving on December 12 in Tacoma, Washington, ship records indicate that 2,511 returning troops were disembarked, allowing them to be back home with their families for Christmas.

In late 1944, it became clear to observers that Japanese forces coming from the north were moving toward a junction with troops advancing westward toward Nanning from Canton.  Col. John A. Dunning, in command of the 5^th Fighter Group at Chihkiang (Zhijiang), put in a request for four B-25s with crews to run missions in close conjunction with his "Flying Hatchet" fighters to resist the enemy drive. His pilots had found that daytime targets were scarce and scattered because the enemy was moving troops and supplies primarily at night, so that was when he intended to strike. Called "Task Force 34," its participants were detached from the 3^rd and 4^th Bomb Squadrons, and the majority of their missions were night single-plane strikes at river, rail, and road traffic in the Hsiang Valley and from Hankow to Kweilin. Many of them were accomplished without moonlight. So successful were these “moonless-night missions” that they became a specialty of Task Force 34.