The group was deactivated following the end of the war and was not reactivated until 1 May 2000, when the Marine Aviation Detachment at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas was renamed MATSG-22.

[3] On 1 March 1942, MAG-21's Midway detachment was commissioned as Marine Aircraft Group 22, initially composed of VMF-221, VMF-222, VMSB-241, and VMSB-242 (VMF-222 and VMSB-242 would later be transferred off of the island on 12 April 1942).

[4][5] From its inception, until several months after the war, the group did not serve within the continental limits of the United States, hence it earned the popular name of "Foreign Legion of Marine Aviation".

Upon their return, the Marine Aircraft Group commander presented a bottle of bourbon to the pilots for their efforts, and were later formally awarded by Admiral Chester W.

[6][7][8][9][10] Captain Neefus made the first pass, drew smoke from one engine, and the target dove for a cloud bank at 3,000 feet.

Lieutenants McCarthy and Somers made modified overhead passes (one each) before the patrol bomber reached the cloud bank.

Marine Gunner Dickey made a tail approach and received a wound in his left shoulder and seven bullet holes in his plane.

As Captain Fleming pressed his attack on the Japanese cruiser Mikuma, his aircraft was struck and set aflame by anti-aircraft fire.

[15] Fleming's rear gunner and radioman, Private First Class George A. Toms, was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Outnumbered five to one, MARINE AIRCRAFT GROUP TWENTY-TWO boldly intercepted a heavily escorted enemy bombing force, disrupting their attack and preventing serious damage to island installations.

Operating with half of their dive-bombers obsolete and in poor mechanical condition which necessitated vulnerable glide bombing tactics, they succeeded in inflicting heavy damage on Japanese surface units of a large enemy task force.

The skill and gallant perseverance of flight and ground personnel of MARINE AIRCRAFT GROUP TWENTY-TWO, fighting under tremendously adverse and dangerous conditions, were essential factors in the unyielding defense of Midway.

Shortly after the end of the battle, Admiral Nimitz perfectly summarized the significance of the Marine defenders in the following dispatch to the MAG: Please accept my sympathy for the losses sustained by your gallant aviation personnel based at Midway.

At that time composed of VMF-113, VMF-422, and VMF(N)-533, flying the Vought F4U Corsair and Grumman F6F Hellcat, the group served a variety of missions across the many Atolls of the Marshall Islands.

On 24–25 May, after Japanese planes had bombed the Ie Shima airfield, and plenty of night fighting handled by VMF(N)-533, a 165-plane kamikaze attack was launched in an attempt to knock out the radar pickets and ships just off shore.

Marine night fighters downed 6 enemy aircraft; however, the two days of fighting also produced the following Navy Cross action of First Lieutenant John W. Leaper of VMF-314:[21][22] The most spectacular performance of the day was that of 1STLT John W Leaper of VMF-314 who shot down two Bettys one of which was mothering a Baka bomb.

He fired his last ten rounds of ammunition at the Zeke which took off after Leaper’s wingman 1STLT William L Milne, who had just destroyed two planes in the melee.

Despite his planes violent spin, Leaper managed to bail out, but he split his parachute, broke two shroud lines and tore the dye marker off his Maw West.

Heavy clouds obscured the location of the ground forces, but the front line air liaison parties coached them in.

[30][31] With Okinawa secured, the MAG began flying out to Omura on Kyushi and then to Sasebo, where Colonel Elliott Bard embarked it for the United States.

After completing this course, these five officers became the nucleus who established the navigation school at Camp Kearny in San Diego, California.

A year later the school was moved to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina where they graduated their first class of navigators in January 1945.

The Aerial Navigation School remained at Cherry Point until January 1971 at which time it was moved to Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, where the Navy assumed responsibility for flight support.

Due to the phasing out of the T-29s in 1976 at Corpus Christi, the Marines of MANS were then relocated to Mather Air Force Base, CA, where they utilized the T43 aircraft.