World War II VMF-124 was commissioned on 2 September 1942 at
Camp Kearney,
San Diego,
California. The squadron was declared fully operational on 28 December 1942 even though the squadron’s pilots had only an average of 25 hours each in the plane. -124 arrived on
Guadalcanal on the morning of 12 February 1943 led by their commanding officer, Major William Gise. The squadron flew its first mission before lunch that day, with twelve F4Us escorting a
PBY Catalina on a 230 mile mission to pick up two downed pilots at Sandfly Bay,
Vella Lavella. The first F4U pilot to be decorated with the
Medal of Honor came from VMF-124 — 1st Lt
Kenneth A. Walsh for a mission on 30 August 1943, during which he shot down four Japanese
Zeros before ditching his borrowed Corsair. The squadron remained in the
Solomon Islands until September 1943, fighting over the
Russell Islands,
New Georgia and
Vella Levella. Following the fighting in the Solomons, the squadron was disbanded and reconstituted back in the United States where it trained in the
Mojave Desert at
Marine Corps Auxiliary Airfield Mojave for the next year. When they received their orders for carrier assignments they had five combat experienced pilots as their training nucleus VMF-124 left the States again on 18 September 1944, heading to
Hawaii. While in Hawaii they were attached to
Navy Air Group 4 who were operating off the . Along with
VMF-213, 124 became the first Marine squadron to be based on an aircraft carrier. While deployed aboard the Essex, they took part in fighting over
Lingayen,
Luzon,
Formosa,
Tokyo,
Iwo Jima and
Okinawa. On 3 January 1945 VMF-124 and VMF-213 struck Formosa and the
Ryukyu Islands in the first Marine land strike off a carrier. On 12 January 1945 three planes from VMF-124 were involved in a
friendly fire incident when they shot down a four-engine
bomber over
French Indochina that had refused to identify itself and had fired on the planes; the aircraft later was identified as a
B-24 Liberator (
serial number 42-73429) of the
United States Army Air Forces 374th Bombardment Squadron.
Reserve activity The squadron was reformed shortly after the war at
Naval Air Station Memphis and were equipped with the F4U-4 Corsair. They were the first squadron in the newly formed Marine Air Reserve Training Command to reach full strength. The squadron was redesignated Marine Attack Squadron 124 (VMA-124) on 1 May 1965 and were subsequently equipped with the A-4 Skyhawk. In 1969, for its two week annual training period, the squadron's fourteen A-4Bs supported the Reserve Marine Expeditionary Brigade Landing Exercise. At the time, the exercise was the largest Marine air/ground maneuver exercise ever held in the continental United States. During the 1970s and 1980s they flew various versions of the A-4 until 1994 when the squadron was moved to
Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth and re-designated Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 124 (VMFA-124). The unit existed as a paper squadron only for two years while awaiting
McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets that would never materialize. The squadron was ultimately deactivated on 19 June 1999. ==Squadron aces==