 Early 1944, East China, from key bases like Kui Lin, the small 14th Air Force accomplished miracles with the aircraft at their disposal. The frontier of flying Tigers fought the Japs with initiative, ingenuity, and superior tactics. General Claire Chenault's Air Force suffered chronic shortages. They had only such supplies as could be flown across the hump or replacement parts which they cannibalized from their own aircraft. Nevertheless, they did an amazing job of maintenance under the most primitive field conditions. Despite the lack of gasoline, equipment, and personnel, they ran effective fighter and bomber operations along a 5,000 mile front. Then came June 1944 and the jet offensive got rolling. When the Chinese armies could no longer protect our bases, we had to get out. During seven terrible months, we had to evacuate 13 of our airfields, even the modern ones which thousands of Chinese had built for us under desperately trying circumstances. And so in East China, American bombs demolished American bases. While a 14th Air Force, tasting temporary defeat, regrouped at other bases in China, the 5th Air Force advanced in the Pacific. Liberators operating from captured fields like Biak now prepared the way for the Philippine campaign. Our mission was to neutralize the enemy on the islands we had bypassed. Our commanders, MacArthur and Kenny, felt there were too many Jap strongholds behind us and around us to be healthy. Airpower had to remove the threat of enemy attacks on the flank and the supply line of our proposed amphibious landing. We were ordered to continually pound enemy concentration centers and sea lanes. In no previous Pacific operations did the preparatory phase cover such a vast area. To isolate the Philippines, our next battle ground, we employed four battle-tested air forces. The 14th from China, the 5th, 7th and 13th from Pacific Island bases like Biak, Anguare and Morotai. Pacific Warfare was Island Warfare. It was our job to cripple key bases in the shrinking Japanese Empire. Our targets were enemy installations and the convoy supplying them. And so island by island and ship by ship, we worked our way back to the Philippines. Longer risky because of General Kenny's idea, attaching parachutes to fragmentation bombs. In this way, parafrags could be safely scattered on enemy targets in low-level attacks. As the enemy built new air strips to protect the Philippines, our concerted attacks from distant bases pounded them to rubble. With these raids, we had softened up the approaches to the Philippines and fulfillment of the promise to return was now in sight. On 19 October, an allied amada of combat and assault vessels maneuvered in Philippine waters. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had decided on Leyte as the invasion island. Two great amphibious forces of more than 700 ships converged. MacArthur knew that Leyte defenses were heavy. Nonetheless, the 10th and 24th Corps of the 6th Army headed for shore on schedule. America was keeping her promise to return. 260,000 Jap troops were scattered throughout the islands. From Leyte to Luzon, they tried to stop the allies from liberating the Philippines. Japanese resistance was in vain. Allied troops advanced from island to island. In each case, the allied landings were skillfully affected with boldness and surprise. But stubborn and prolonged fighting usually followed in the hills. Took two months of bloody battle to secure Leyte. By January 9th, we were fighting our way on Luzon towards Manila. The hills of Luzon were a problem ready made for an air power assist. In cooperation with ground units, we flew tactical missions against Japs hold up in modern caves. Ground radio control directed our bombing. With the Japanese severely crippled, successive allied invasions treaded through the Philippine archipelago to cut up Luzon. U.S. troops and Philippine guerrillas under MacArthur's direction fought many battles supported by General Kenny's Air Force. Next came the rock. Corregador had special meaning for General MacArthur. He remembered skinny Wainwright and his men who had suffered five months of battle, 28 days of siege, surrender and a death march. For them, there was a score to settle. The most spectacular air action of the Luzon campaign was this pre-invasion bombing and recapture of Corregador. General Kenny had proposed that it be retaken from the air. The Blitz started January 23rd with a 13th Air Force dropping 500 pound bombs. The 7th Air Force hit the target from Palau. Veterans of the 5th Air Force joined in hammering the Guardian Fortress of Manila Bay. Now, 50 troop carrying C-47s from Indoro headed for Corregador. The proposed air landing was perilous and problematic. We were about to retake a citadel built before the war by Americans who tried to make it impregnable. We hoped that the month of continuous bombing had softened the rock. 2065 men faced the ticklish job of jumping into an extremely short and narrow area. A rugged target surrounded by sheer cliffs. A plan to drop on topside worked. We only found scattered opposition, but in making the perilous jump, 19 Americans were killed, 203 injured. The Corregador return drama developed along the classic Allied pattern in the art of Trifibious Warfare. All the tools and specialists of air, ground, and naval forces had been pooled together to achieve victory. On February 27th, organized resistance on Corregador ceased. It was appropriate that on the same day, we returned control of civil affairs to the Commonwealth government of the Philippines. Within the week, 12 American officers, all veterans of the fall of Corregador, headed by General of the Army MacArthur, returned to the rock. They came to pay formal tribute to troops of the 503rd Paratroop and 34th Infantry Regiments who captured it. In his remarks, MacArthur said, hoist the colors and let no enemy ever haul them down. The road to victory was a long trek over many bridges, one by the combined strength of land, sea, and air. Leading the way in pushing the Jap aggressor back to his home islands and crushing his dreams of empire was the United States Air Force.