Tales of the Guinea Short Lines 25th Liaison Squadron

Flight Journal, Apr 2002 by Busha, James P, Henkle, James, Bartlett, Frank

In early 1943, the squadron trained in Louisiana and Mississippi. I got all the pilots checked out in the L-5 and got the squadron squared away. In mid-1943, our orders arrived: report to the Sth Air Force in Australia. We were at last going into combat! We put the ISs into containers for shipping and set sail for Australia-the first liaison squadron sent to the South Pacific. I was sure that the Sth Air Force had plans for us. Nothing was further from the truth.

On our arrival in Australia, I reported to the Sth Air Force Command and told the duty officer very proudly, "The 25th Liaison Squadron has arrived and is ready for duty!" He looked up and asked, "What is a liaison squadron?" Boy, was my face red. He asked me whether someone had "screwed up" our orders and said that maybe we had been sent there "by mistake." I was more confused than ever. The only thing I knew was that the Sth Air Force didn't know what to do with us either! We were sent to a corner of an airfield and told to wait there until someone in "higher command" could sort it all out and, "Oh, by the way ... don't get in the way of the bombers and fighters. There's a war on, ya know!"

On paper, I had 32 L-5s, but when we went to the dock to collect them, we found only a handful. All the others had disappeared to parts unknown. Our situation was quickly deteriorating, but it was to get even worse. The bomber and fighter pilots laughed at us; my enlisted sergeant pilots were upset that the army artillery pilots flying Piper L-4s were all made first lieutenants. I tried to get my pilots a commission, too, but the Air Force wouldn't hear of it. What made me most angry was that most of my damned airplanes had been "stolen." I was starting to believe that the existence of the 25th Liaison Squadron had never been planned!

We were then given orders to report to New Guinea because some L-Ss were needed to support the taking of the island. I sent a couple of people up to Port Moresby, New Guinea, where the only planes I had were in crates; the mechanics and pilots assembled them and flew on ahead to where the fighter and bomber group was. I took the rest of the squadron up to Finschhafen, New Guinea, and when we arrived, the area commanders still didn't know what to do with us. The other complication was that I didn't have all my airplanes. Shortly after my arrival in New Guinea, I learned that my missing/stolen aircraft had been taken and assembled by various bomber and fighter groups and that each one had its own L-5 to "play around with." I also learned that most of the officers "playing" with my aircraft were full-bird colonels. I went out to the various bases to try to get my L-Ss back, but the colonels wouldn't even talk to me. To make matters worse, the L-Ss that I did have would be "hijacked" by Air Force officers. My sergeant pilots could be on the ramp, in the cockpit and with the. engine running ready for a mission, but because some Air Force officer wanted to go up for a "joyride," he would order the enlisted pilot out and take the airplane flying. I eventually had enough! I needed to put a stop to this: morale in my squadron was worsening daily and I didn't want it to selfdestruct. I went up to Gen. George C. Kenney's office at 5th Air Force headquarters and told him that I wanted my airplanes back and I didn't want officers ordering my enlisted pilots out of their planes. The very next day, he ordered every L-5 in the area to be sent to my squadron. When the L-Ss arrived at our strip, they were parked wingtip to wingtip, and I had never seen so many airplanes in one place in my life!