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The Cactus Air Force was the ensemble of Allied air power assigned to the island of Guadalcanal from August 1942 until December 1942 during the most heavily contested phases of the Guadalcanal Campaign, particularly those operating from Henderson Field. The name is based on "Cactus", the Allied code name for the island.
The organization acquired four O-2s from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 1996. [1]The organization received approval to build a 12,000 sq ft (1,100 m 2) facility from the airport authority in May 2013.
AirSols superseded and absorbed the Cactus Air Force, which controlled Allied air units in the Solomons during 1942–43. AirSols was made up of United States Navy (USN), United States Marine Corps (USMC), the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and the Thirteenth Air Force , United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) forces.
Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 112, was originally activated as VMF-112, at San Diego, California on 1 March 1942.. Original VMF-112 Squadron Patch. Deploying shortly after to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in their Grumman F4F Wildcats, the Wolfpack joined the Cactus Air Force with Marine Aircraft Group 11.
Allied aircraft operating out of Henderson were called the "Cactus Air Force" (CAF) after the Allied code name for Guadalcanal. To protect the airfield, the U.S. Marines established a perimeter defense around Lunga Point. Additional reinforcements over the next two months increased the number of U.S. troops at Lunga Point to more than 20,000 men.
The Air Defence Artillery Group was disbanded in 1992 after the Cactus mk 1 missile system was retired, with only remnants of 120 Squadron, operating the upgraded Cactus mk 2 Container system, becoming part of the Air Command Control Unit at Snake Valley, stationed opposite Air Force Base Swartkop on the eastern side of the shared runway.
122 Squadron SAAF was a South African Air Force squadron formed in 1970 to operate the South African/French Cactus surface-to-air missile systems in an air defence role. The unit was disbanded when the Cactus system was retired from service in the late 1980s.
MAG-23, augmented by Army and Navy land based air under the operational control of 1st MAW, furnished air support to the 1st Marine Division and Army ground forces in the struggle for Guadalcanal. The Group composed of only four Marine squadrons, detachments from six Navy carrier squadrons ( VS-5 , VB-6 , VF-5 , VS-71 , VT-8 and VS-3 ), and the ...