page_title: 159th Liaison Squadron
section_title: Battle of Luzon
hierarchical_section_title: 159th Liaison Squadron / History / Battle of Luzon
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Army Air Forces Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman (s/n 44-70439) from the 3rd Air Commando Group. The 3rd ARG operated mainly in the Philippines from May 1944 until it took part in the occupation of Japan in September 1945.
context_page_description: The 159th Liaison Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to V Fighter Command, and was inactivated on 31 May 1946 at Itami Airfield, Japan.
  The squadron was a World War II Air Commando unit, primarily seeing combat during the Philippines Campaign with the 3d Air Commando Group. Flying unarmed Stinson L-5 Grasshopper and UC-64A Norseman light aircraft, the squadron flew courier and aerial reconnaissance missions and dropped munitions and supplies to American and Philippine forces fighting in the Battle of Luzon.
context_section_description: On 9 January 1945, two Corps of the Sixth United States Army landed on the shores of Lingayen Gulf, just a few miles south of where the Japanese had invaded the island on 22 December 1941. From the landing beaches, the Corps drove south to the Manila area while maintaining a strong defensive line to the North. In this liberated beachhead, two major airfields plus smaller liaison landing strips were hastily constructed. With the landings on Luzon, the members of the three 3d Commando Group's Liaison Squadrons gathered their equipment and supplies and loaded onto LST 919 for the trip to the Lingayen beachhead. Upon arrival, the units moved by truck convoy on 1 February to a rough airstrip near Calaiso, where some landing strips, carved out by the men of the 168th Field Artillery Regiment, were being used by an L-5 Stinson for artillery spotting.
  While moving to Luzon, back on Leyte, some new L-5Bs had arrived in crates and a detachment of the squadron had remained to assemble the aircraft. After assembling the aircraft, making some test flights, and configuring some bomb shackles for the carrying and dropping of supplies, some auxiliary gas tanks were installed in the rear of the cockpit to increase the planes' range. On 6 February, twenty-eight modified L-5Bs of the squadron took off from Leyte for the airstrip at Calasio. They were escorted by some Marine Corps Vought F4U Corsairs and a Navy PBY Catalina that provided both navigation and fighter protection. As more planes were assembled on Leyte, they were also ferried up to equip the other two squadrons on Luzon.
  Upon their arrival in the combat zone, the men and pilots of the squadron immediately began flying missions, evacuating wounded, flying supply missions and also performing battlefield reconnaissance with individuals flying as many as 20 missions a day. In its first three weeks in combat, the squadron evacuated over 1,500 wounded, flew seventy supply missions, delivering over 14,000 pounds of supplies. With such a heavy schedule of flights, it was not long before the first combat loss occurred.  On 10 February, while flying over Japanese-occupied Nichols Field on a reconnaissance flight, SSGt Donald McDonell suffered wounds when the plane was hit by ground fire. Both of the planes wingtips were blown off and he suffered wounds to a knee and wrist; however he managed to coax the plane back to a recently captured landing strip in Grace Park, one of Manila's northern suburbs. He recovered from his wounds; the plane was written off.
  A few days after the Lingayen landings, the guerrillas of the U.S. Army Forces in the Philippines (Northern Luzon), along with Philippine Scouts, began to strike in force in the rear areas of Japanese-occupied territory. The men of this unit were a mixture of Americans who were stay-behinds from the Battan Campaign who escaped from Japanese forces and Filipinos who continued the fight after the surrender in April 1942. By mid-February 1945, the Japanese had been pushed back into the mountains of Luzon near Vigan. Seeking to exploit the situation, Fifth Air Force directed that supplies be flown into the area to aid the guerrilla forces. Several airfields which the Air Commandos chose where in pretty bad shape, with the runways pockmarked with shell holes. The planes operated from crude strips in the mountains, evacuating wounded, bringing in supplies, and supporting behind-the-lines operations of the Alamo Scouts. The unit also directed air strikes. Three 159th pilots lost their lives in the operation. S/Sgt Jack Smith was lost when his plane was hit by ground fire. He was carrying out two guerrillas wedged in the back seat. Despite the plane crashing and burning, his passengers survived without injury. G/O Robert Hutchinson and passenger Cpl. Alfred Bennet crashed in a narrow valley near Cervantes while trying to climb out of a confined area. Ferdinand Marcos was a member of the Filipino guerrillas and had his headquarters at Luna.
  A second detachment supported   the 308th Bomb Wing. The detachment operated off a drained rice paddy adjoi
caption: Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman (s/n 44-70439) from the 3rd Air Commando Group.
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