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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.
When Saratoga was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, the squadron was assigned to Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, where it served as part of the Cactus Air Force. VTR-8 fought there to the point where all aircraft were disabled, and then operated as a single-aircraft unit, as one plane at a time was put back into service by salvaging parts ...
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.
On this day, the Japanese 11th Air Fleet under Jinichi Kusaka based at Rabaul sent 16 Mitsubishi G4M2 "Betty" bombers and 28 A6M2 Zero fighters to attack Henderson Field. In response, 24 F4F-4 Wildcats and four P-400 Airacobras from the CAF (Cactus Air Force) rose to meet them, resulting in a large aerial battle. To Allied observers, the ...
The Japanese inability to retake Guadalcanal is largely to do with air operations conducted by the Cactus Air Force. The early warning radars and fighter direction provided by the Guadalcanal Radar Detachment were critical to that effort by allowing the Cactus Air Force to husband its critically short fighter planes during the most desperate ...
The Air Force has reinstated a course on the first Black pilots unit after it was yanked to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning DEI in the federal government.
Squadron's logo when it was VMF-121. Marine Fighting Squadron 121 (VMF-121) was activated on 24 June 1941.The Green Knights began combat operations flying the F4F Wildcat and later the F4U Corsair as charter members of the Cactus Air Force and throughout the Battle of Guadalcanal arriving in October 1942.