VMA-123
United States Marine Corps aviation unit
Marine Attack Squadron 123 (VMA-123) was a fighter squadron of the United States Marine Corps during World War II and later transitioned to an attack squadron in the Marine Forces Reserve. Known as the "Flying Eight Balls," the squadron fought at Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa and served as a training squadron for replacement pilots during the Korean War. The squadron was decommissioned on 31 October 1965 at Naval Air Station Los Alamitos.
History
World War II
VMF-123 was commissioned on 7 September 1942 at Camp Kearney. The squadron took delivery of 18 Grumman F4F Wildcats in December of that year. A large percentage of the squadron’s initial pilots came from the experienced VMF-121 hoping it would require them less time to become combat ready. The squadron embarked upon the SS Lurline and departed the United States on 8 January 1943. They arrived at Noumea on 22 January, where they transferred to the USS Hunter Liggett. Arriving at Efate on 26 January, they eventually boarded DC-3s flying for Espiritu Santo on 2 February. The squadron arrived at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal on 3 February 1943 and flew their first combat mission the following day.
The public source identifies “VMA-123” as united States Marine Corps aviation unit. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around VMA-123, United and States.
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This entry incorporates text from “VMA-123” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.