[3]: 43  On 27 January, VMF-422 moved to Marine Corps Air Station Santa Barbara under the command of Major John S. MacLaughlin, Jr. to begin training together as a squadron.

Three pilots, Captains Cloyd Rex Jeans, Charles Hughes and John Rogers were veterans of combat in the Pacific, all having served in other VMF units from Midway to Guadalcanal.

They participated in gunnery and bombing training at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert.

The squadron was declared operational on 24 September 1943, and ordered to San Diego, where the lead echelon of twenty-four pilots and planes would be loaded aboard the new Essex-class carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) for transport to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 3 October.

Major MacLaughlin was met by the chief of staff of the Fourth Marine Base Defense Air Wing (4th MBDAW) Colonel Lawrence Burke, who informed him that VMF-422 was to fly to the island of Funafuti, 820 miles to the southeast to await their role in Operation Flintlock, the invasion of the Marshall Islands, scheduled for 3 February.

But despite having formally requested a multi-engine navigational escort plane from the Fourth MBDAW commander, Brigadier General Lewie G. Merritt, MacLaughlin and his pilots were told to make the flight alone.

[3]: 123  In addition, MacLaughlin was not told that the weather report, which forecast scattered clouds and rain showers down to their destination, was more than twenty-six hours old.

[3]: 127–128 The remaining Corsairs, which carried enough fuel to last until about 1600 hrs., flew south along the chain of Gilbert and Ellice Islands, headed for their first stop, Nanumea Airfield, the home base of the United States Army Air Forces 30th Bomb Group (Heavy).

But due to a procedural error among the air operations staff at Hawkins Field, neither Nanumea nor Funafuti had been informed of VMF-422's imminent arrival.

[3]: 138 At 1230 hrs., still short of Nanumea, the squadron encountered a massive Pacific cyclone measuring nearly 150 miles 240 km) in diameter and reaching to more than 50,000 feet, (1524 m).

Having little choice, the pilots flew into the storm and were immediately blown far to the south and east by the clockwise rotation of the cyclone, which carried them beyond Nanumea.

[3]: 143  By the time the scattered Corsairs broke out of the first storm front nearly twenty minutes later they were already more than fifty miles (80 km) past Nanumea.

[3]: 150  Against orders, Lieutenant Robert Lehnert chose to stay behind and circle the downed pilot while making continual efforts to contact a base.

[3]: 152–53 Another storm front swallowed them and at last, MacLaughlin agreed to turn back and try to find either Nanumea or Nui, which was closest to their estimated location.

He spent the next three days alone on his raft until being found by a Consolidated PBY Catalina from Patrol Squadron 53 (VP-53) on the early afternoon of 28 January.

[3]: 176–78, 214–15 The other thirteen downed pilots managed to survive three days of heavy wind-whipped seas, severe exposure and sharks until the afternoon of 28 January.

A Navy Board of Inquiry was ordered by Rear Admiral John Hoover, commander of Task Group 50.2, which had jurisdiction over Marine air operations in the area.

By order of CINCPAC, escort planes were official Navy policy for single-engine fighters ferrying long distance over water.

[2] During this period, the Flying Buccaneers hosted Charles Lindbergh in September 1944 and he also accompanied them on three strike missions against Wotje Atoll.

[5][2] On 29 June, Capt DeBlanc led a large formation of Corsairs from multiple squadrons against targets on Ishigaki Island.