UTILITY SQUADRON ONE

 

FOR NEARLY a quarter of a century—  October 5, 1925  to 16 May 1949 Utility Squadron One as handyman extraordinary served the Pacific Fleet, doing what had to be done with outst­anding efficiency. Its tasks, varied and often difficult, never stumped VJ-1 and the Navy does not mourn its passing, is only because, like the Phoenix, the squadron rises from the ashes of decommissioning to fly again under the sign of VU-7 to which many of its officers and men were transferred.

 To go back to the date of VJ-1's commissioning, one must travel through me, through the first years of the atomic era, the long grueling months of World War II, the 1930’s in which reparation was too often curtailed by (budget limitations), the late 1920's of boom and bust. Finally one comes to a bright October day at NAS San Diego, in 1925 when the squadron received its name and mission.

 The very word “utility,” which suggests a type of duty far from glamorous, as a special luster when a squadron gives year after year steady, effective service in many different ways. It may not be fun to be useful, it may not be dramatic but it is essential. VJ-1 exhibited a devotion to duty never once broken and, as the “aerial handymen of the fleet,” its members diligently car­ed out their assignments.

 It was not by chance that the ships of the United States Pacific Fleet outshot and outfought the best that the enemy could muster in World War II. It was VJ-1 and squadrons like it that had provided  the antiaircraft gunnery practice so essential to the fleet. And it hadn’t been easy, for in procuring the materials to set up practice, the utility squadrons had to compete with combat units. But persistence paid off, and the utility squadrons won their battle of procure­ment sufficiently to train the fleet for AA duty in the Battle of the Pacific.

 But in addition to towing targets, the other tasksVJ-1 was called upon to do make a formidable list: torpedo photo and recovery, fighter director practice, calibration of radar and radio instru­ments, submarine coverage for protec­tion during maneuvers and tests, spot­ting results of large caliber and torpedo “live” firing practice, radar practice, transportation of personnel and mail, air patrol and convoy coverage, search and rescue, and photography. Were it not to suggest a general in competency to do anything well, an implication utterly contrary to the facts, the “J’, in the squadron designation might well stand for “jack-of-all-trades.”

Right from the first, VJ-1 was called upon to do aerial photography and maintained its own laboratory. The squadron’s competency in this type of work was recognized when a detachment was ordered in 1926 to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, to do aerial mapping of an area hitherto uncharted. The measure of the squadron’s success in this type of work is indicated by the fact that in 1934, VJ-1 participated in the Second Alaskan Aerial Survey Expedition which was sent to Kanaga Bay in the Aleutians.

In 1938, Cdr. Allen I. Price wrote of the struggle of utility squadrons to establish ­ their right to exist as a growing naval unit: “Any attempt at a resume of Utility Squadron’s history reads like the case history of an extremely un­desirable alien who,’ despite contempt and studied shunning, keps coming back like a bad penny; and it is constantly popping up until in desperation some one has to do something about it. That something was the organization of the Utility Wing in 1934.”

 FROM 1935 On, VJ-1 supplied tow-target services to two antiaircraft’ gunnery schools, one aboard the USS Utah at Long Beach and the other on San Clemente Island, California. Early in 1937, the squadron developed something the fleet very much needed, a type of practice which enabled VJ-1 to simulate a dive-bombing attack. In April of the same year, the Sikorsky S-34 plane - called by Navy JRS-1 - arrived to make higher speed tows available for practice.  

To service the fleet, VJ-1 had to move its base frequently, and more than once it went to Panama during maneuvers in that area. In December 1938, the squad­ron flew 17 airplanes to Guantanamo, a hazardous undertaking in the type of planes then used. It could be tough going and frequently it was.

 The constant demand for “new prac­tices,” a “new service,” a “new photo­graphic assignment,” a “new night anti­aircraft practice” kept VJ-1 constantly on its toes, and while the succession of problems provided headaches, it also developed ingenuity.

In September 1939, a detachment of VJ-1 arrived at Pearl Harbor, and by June 1940, the entire squadron was based there for further operations­. Japanese struck 7 December 1941. The first awful shock of the enemy attack stunned vj-1, but not for long. In the next instant, pilots and crews were fight­ing back. The Japanese, scornful of utility planes painted green and orange, had left them practically untouched.

 IN A MATTER of minutes, officers and men had their J2F amphibians with machine guns mounted in the second cockpits turned against the enemy regardless of personal danger to them­selves. It was in virtually unarmed planes - every plane available -that utility pilots took oft at 0950 in the midst of enemy action to seek the source of the attack. Some of the crew’s grabbed rifles to take with them on the flights that ranged from six to eight hours. VJ-1’s ‘Base Radio” took over communications at NAS PEARL HARBOR, when other facilities were damaged beyond repair.

 The squadron that by virtue of sen­iority had led many a Fleet Parade in the pre-war years lived up to its tradi­tion by being the first naval squadron to counterattack. The ‘bad penny that kept coming back” was legal tender, earnest money on the full attack the Navy would make in the years ahead.

It is believed that the VJ-1 plane armed with Springfield rifles and piloted by Cdr. W. Ruth and Lt. E. C. Geise, later exec of the squadron, was the first plane to contact Japanese aircraft. Had this plane been able to extend its search 50 miles further, it probably would have located the elements of the main Japa­nese fleet. For many days, the utility planes carried the brunt of search and patrol, exhibiting such heroism and exe­cuting such exploits that many were awarded Navy Crosses.  

With war came a stepped up demand for every kind of service that utility squadrons were prepared to give as well as new services  which the conflict bred.

The long years of constant service found vj-1 ready to take on heavier work than ever before and involved long, tedious hours seven days a week. As 1ong as there was no peace, there was no rest, and day and night in all kinds of weather, VJ-1 averaged 35 missions a day.  

The Fleet Photographic Laboratory deserves special mention for the great amount of work it turned Out with no lowering of the high standard it had set in peacetime. It increased its output 430% during the war.

 During the four years VJ-1 spent at Pearl Harbor, it was used as a training outfit from which many other utility squadrons were formed. One detach­ment was based on Majuro atoll in 1944 where its members had all the con­veniences” afforded by a newly captured base—living in tents and working in the open all day long.

 Great credit must go to the excellent engineering work of the squadron, and the splendid record of efficiency of VJ-1 and the unbroken record of safe flying are due in great part to the reliable maintenance provided by VJ-1 ground crews. In 1944, during which VJ-1 made 5,205 flights and logged a total of 10,549 hours, there were only two flight accidents, and even in these there were no injuries or deaths. With only .19 accidents per 1,000 hours, it was clear that VJ-1 maintained a flight and safety record under varied conditions and the high pressure of a constant demand for 24-hour flying that was beyond the dreams of statisticians.

 On 31 July 194-1, after a little over four years aboard, VJ-1 returned to Mof­fett Field and in 1945 celebrated 20 years of service. A few weeks later, it returned to Hawaii where, until its de­commissioning this year, it continued its career. The year 1946 was marked by the Bikini bomb tests, VJ-1 taking pic­tures of the surface ships just before they headed westward.  

WITHOUT the men that made up VJ-1, it is safe to say that the squadron might not have made the rec­ord it did. The roster of its command­ing officers contains such names as G. Child, R. F. Wood, A. P. Schneider, G. T. Owen, C. T. Simard, H. T. Stan­ley, and P. B. Tuzo, Jr.  

Through the years a nucleus of “old hands” trained the newcomers in the strange ways of “utility flying” and were responsible for keeping the “old crates” flying. They also were directly respon­sible for constantly improving methods of training the forces afloat. Space does not permit naming them all, but here are a few with their years of service in “Utility": ACM M. H. Hanson, 13 years; Lt. E. C. Geise, 11 years, ACMM H. F. Harper, 10 years; Lt. Odie Malone, 10 years; Lt. (jg) J. D. Byrd, 9 years; and Lt. T. H. Bredesen, 9 years.

 When VJ-1  in the last three years it carried the official designation of VU-1, but old-timers clung to the original name - was decommissioned 16 May 1949, it was a break with the past. But VJ-1 can look back with pride and forward with anticipation, realizing as every member of that famous squadron must, that they helped to give a common word a spe­cial meaning, rich in experience and service -UTILITY.

Navy Aviation News, December 1949