"Expeditionary Airfields in the Pacific, 1941–1945" Topic

"In recent years the US military has become increasingly interested in operating aircraft from austere, expeditionary airfields due to concerns about competitor's abilities to threaten established airfields.1 Expeditionary airfields have also been used in supporting operations against terrorist organizations around the world.2 While the growing interest in creating, maintaining, and operating from such airfields is recent, the US military has an established history of constructing and using such airfields. For example, during World War II, the Allied counteroffensive against Japan required aircraft to operate ever further from established bases in Australia and Hawaii. Sometimes this required engineers to construct airfields hours after Japanese forces had been driven off so that air operations could begin within days. A recent biography of Captain Jerry Yellin has illuminated Yellin's experience flying P-51 fighters from Iwo Jima less than three weeks after US Marines invaded that island.3 Examining the US Army Air Force's prewar preparations for expeditionary airfields and wartime operations highlights the challenges and solutions adopted to provide airpower from advanced locations in the Pacific in World War II…."

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