Marine Detachment, Air Warning Service, Philippines
The Marine Detachment, Air Warning Service, Philippines (active 1941–42) was a United States Marine Corps ground based early-warning radar detachment that provided long range detection and rudimentary fighter direction against Japanese air raids during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in the early days of World War II.
In lieu of working detection equipment and trained personnel, the Warning Service maintained a primitive system of 509 observation posts manned by 860 civilian watchers, unschooled in aircraft identification, who would report airplane movements by five radio, two telegraph, and ten telephone networks manned by members of all three U.S. military services, the Philippine Army and constabulary, the Philippine postal system, and civilian companies in the provinces.
[7] On 15 November the AWS was integrated into the new 5th Interceptor Command, plans for the fixed-location radar sites were only five percent complete and no date to begin construction had been set.
[10] The detachment originally had 29 men and was led by Chief Warrant Officer John Brainard with Master Technical Sergeant Clarence L. Bjork as the senior enlisted Marine.
[10] Because radar was still top secret at this time the Marines worked behind a guarded enclosure next to the supply department that no observers could see inside.
Within 30 minutes radar at Iba Airfield, Luzon plotted a formation of airplanes 75-miles (120-km) offshore, heading for Corregidor Island.
By 1130 hours, the fighters sent into the air earlier landed for refueling, and radar disclosed another flight of Japanese aircraft 70-miles (112-km) West of Lingayen Gulf, headed south.
The P-40's sent on patrol of the South China Sea returned to Iba with fuel running low at the beginning of a Japanese attack on the airfield.
[17] Soldiers from the 12th Quartermaster Regiment assisted the Marines in getting their overloaded radar and communications vehicles back over the Tagaytay Ridge.
Split up from each other during the course of the convoy, the detachment's vehicles drove through Manila and San Fernando, Pampanga and eventually regrouped in Orani on Christmas Day.
After observing the detachment's ability to live off the land, a new lieutenant sent from the 4th Marine Regiment to provide some additional discipline nicknamed them "The Rouges of Bataan.
[25][26] In March 1942, short on gasoline and only operating periodically, the detachment packed up gear and moved to a hidden spot in the jungle on high ground about a mile from Bataan Airfield.
[29] Takeoffs and landings by the Bataan Field Flying Detachment required towing of P-40s off the runways to and from hidden revetments, and the aircraft were vulnerable to strafing during this time.
The ad hoc system facilitated coordination of field operations, and while imperfect, no aircraft were lost during takeoffs or landings.
[31] On the afternoon of 8 April, the detachment received orders to break down their radar site and prepare to move to Mariveles to stage for transit to Corregidor.
[32] En route to Marivales they encountered an SCR-268 radar detachment from the Army's 200th Coast Artillery in the vicinity of Cabcaben Airfield.
Because the surviving members of the detachment all became prisoners of war, none of their experiences or after action items filtered back to the Marine Corps to help inform the service as it began to stand up its own formal air warning program.
