For The PBJ Gurus

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2007 8:57 pm

Lt Col Jack Cram at the controls of a PBJ 1945.

Dave Fish · **Posted:** Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:37 pm

Jack, Where in the hell do you get these pics??!!

SPang · **Posted:** Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:19 am

Hi Jack,

Very nice pics.

SPang

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:35 am

Quote:

Where in the heck do you get these pics??!!

NARA

Dave Fish · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:22 am

VMB-611 Commanding Officer Lt. Col. George A. Sarles with Joe E. Brown, Moret Field, Zamboanga, Mindanao, P.I.
Lt. Col. Sarles and three of his crew members were KIA flying PBJ-1D "MB 7" on 30 May 1945.

Dave Fish · **Posted:** Tue Apr 03, 2007 7:57 pm

1st. Lt. Doit L. Fish, VMB-611 PBJ pilot, Moret Field, Zamboanga, Mindanao, P.I.
1st. Lt. Fish, flying PBJ-1J "MB 11" and his seven-member crew (including one passenger) went MIA near Davao, Mindanao on 30 May 1945.
The wreckage of MB 11 and crew skeletal remains were found on 16 November 1956.
A group burial of the eight Marines, with full military honors, was held at Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, CO on 15 July 1957.
They trained together, were deployed overseas together, flew combat missions together, died together, and rest in eternal peace together.
SEMPER FI.

1st. Lt. Fish was posthumously promoted to Captain and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three Gold Stars, Purple Heart, and other campaign medals. As part of MAG 32, MAGSZAM, VMB-611 was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation Ribbon.

Craig59 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:23 am

Dave,

Wonderful tribute to your Dad. It's great that the Camarillo PBJ will honor him and his crew.

Dave Fish · **Posted:** Sat May 12, 2007 9:31 pm

Today I received the below e-mail and photos from one of the VMB-611 vets I have contact with. Although the photos are not high quality, they show what Moret Field (named after Lt Col Paul Moret, USMC) was like during the war. Rip Collins personally knew and served under Moret:

Colonel Moret was killed in mid 1943 in a transport plane crash at New Caledonia. His command status at that time I do not know.

I, as a member of a Marine twin engine bomber squadron, flew later from an airfield at Zamboanga, Mindanao in the Philippines that was called Moret Field in memory of Col. Moret.

About this airfield named after him I do know quite a bit. It seems that my Marine Corps flying days started under Capt. Moret and ended flying from an airfield named after him some four years later.

Moret Field was constructed from a rather poor Japanese airfield just north of Zamboanga, Mindanao in the Philippines. Construction started just after we landed there on 15 March, 1945. It was improved by a U. S. Army airfield construction unit using considerable Filipino labor. When completed, the single runway was about 4500' long aligned SW to NE. There were two adjacent taxi ways along both sides of the runway with revetment areas. At the peak of operations in 1945 there were about 300 aircraft flying from the airfield. The vast majority were USMC aircraft supporting US Army infantry operations on Mindanao but also ranging down the Sulu area as far as Borneo.

I flew in a twin engined bomber PBJ or B-25. I left there on 12 September 1945 returning the the states and civilian life as a college student. The military operations there ceased that fall. The field today is being used as Zamboanga International Airport as well as a Philippine Air Base called Andrews Field.

____________________________

Rip's e-mail to me:

Dave
I lucked out they were on the next computer I picked up! On the runway you can see SBD's and F4U's lurking in the background. Amazing how quickly the runway was shaped up into a darn good airfield.

Looking at the close edge of the picture of the runway taken from the air you can see the revetments on which our aircraft were parked however it seems that work had begun on the Philippine Air Base at Zamboanga and the actual revetments 611 used (to the left, east) have been removed or at least some of them have. Our parking area was on the revetments closes to the east end of the runway on the north side.

As I mentioned Zamboanga sure looks small along the beach doesn't it? If you look at Google Earth and align the picture like this old one all you will see is a sea of buildings!

OK Dave I hope you enjoy these two shots.
Rip

Dave Fish · **Posted:** Tue May 15, 2007 1:28 pm

VMB-611 PBJ-1D MB 3

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