All right, on Monday June 7, 1999, I recieved a letter with some information on the 870th Bomb Squadron.Here's the information on the 870th Bomb Squadron.

The 870th Bomb Squadron was activated on 20 November 1943. The 870th was deactivated on March 31, 1999. While the 870th Bomb Squadron was active, it was attached to the 497th Bomb Group.

The 870th Bomb Squadron was attached stationed at the following stations: El Paso Municipal Airport, Texas, 20 November 1943, Clovis Army Air Force Field, New Mexico, 1 December 1943, Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas (this is probably where training was conducted,) 13 April-18 July, 1944, Isley Field Saipan (see below for how it got named) 17 September 1944-1 November 1945; Camp Stoneman, California, 14 November 1945; March Field California, 26 November 1945; MacDill Field, Florida, January 31-March 1946.

Aircraft: B-17, 1944; B-29 Superfortress 1944-1946.

Operations. Combat in Western Pacific, 1 November 1944-14 August 1945.

Service Streamers:None

Campagns: Air Offensive, Japan; Eastern Mandates; Western Pacific.

Decorations: Distuinguished Unit Citations: Japan, 27 January 1945 (this is the raid on which my grand uncle and his crew were shot down. See below for more details;) Japan, 26 July-2 August 1945.

Emblem: (as soon as I can get get the emblem, I will put it on this page) Over and through a medium blue disc, wide border dark red, a gorilla affronte, proper, standing on a yellow sphere marked with black lines of Longitude and Latitude in base, and holding a large light red aerial bomb under the left arm, and hurling a like aerial bomb with the up raised right arm, all in front of a large white cloud formation. The emblem was approved on August 18, 1944.

How Isley Field recieved it's name: During the invasion of Saipan, in the Mariana Islands, a Marine Corps, or Navy pilot, named Commander Isely (his last name) was attacking the Japanese airfield, later named Isley Field, when he was killed. When the Air Field was reached, some body sugested that the field be named in Isely's honor. They Painted his name on a hut, but was misspelled. It was spelled "Isley Field." So the name stuck.

Now about the raid that my grand uncle was shot down on. The raid was on January 27, 1945, over Tokyo. Intelligence had sellected two targets for bombing. The two targets where the: Mushashio (I'll have to look the spelling up) engine plant and the Nakagima aircraft plant. On that day the winds where very fast, and there where heavy fighters. No bombs where droped. Five B-29's (including my grand uncle's B-29) where shot down, and four other's ditched or crashed. When I heard that they didn't even drop bombs, my first reaction was that I was very angry, I though that had they did the bombing, then it might have been worth it, but then I thought that thousands of air men had died, including Axis air crews, under the same conditions.

Well I hope that you have learned some thing from this page. Thanks to the United States Air Force for sending me this info.