Assault Air Warning Squadrons were United States Marine Corps aviation command and control units formed during World War II to provide early warning, aerial surveillance, and ground controlled interception during the early phases of amphibious landing.

Assault Air Warning SquadronTable of Organization & Equipment (1944): As the Guadalcanal Campaign was winding down, the Commandant of the Marine Corps convened a radar policy board on 11 February 1943.

Another defining feature of these squadrons was the inclusion of a ground observer division consisting of two officers and forty-eight enlisted men.

The largest technical problem affecting these new squadrons was that the Marine Corps was unable to procure a lightweight search radar capable of being transported via air.

[3] Following the Battle of Saipan and the recommendation of General Holland Smith the air warning program in the Marine Corps was reorganized.

As a result of this reorganization the Marine Corps approved the decommissioning of the Assault Air Warning Squadrons on 1 November 1944.

On 29 March, AWS(AT)-5 boarded the USS Wasp (CV-18) at Naval Air Station North Island and sailed west.

The squadron arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 4 March and made camp at Marine Corps Air Station Ewa.

[7] The squadron arrived back in Hawaii on 10 August and returned to MCAS Ewa to conduct maintenance on equipment and continue training.

On 21 July 1944 the squadron provided a radar and control center exhibit for Admiral William D. Leahy and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

[11] The squadron departed MCAS Cherry Point on 27 March and arrived at Marine Corps Air Depot Miramar, California on 1 April.

[13] On 1 May 1944 the squadron departed MCAS Cherry Point and moved to Marine Corps Air Depot Miramar, California.