A little USN Pilot Repl Group help

[jcjordan]

I'm trying to get some oob/plane type info on the USN RAGs for a personal mod. I've found only a few bits & pieces so far but any other help/sources someone can give me would be appreciated. There were supposedly 4 RAGs formed - 2 overseas in the Pacific on/after 4/1/44 (1 of which is AG-100 at Barber's Pt) the other not sure where but assume it might also be PH area if not SWPAC/SOPAC areas & 1 on each on the EC/WC. I assume w/ the 1 named group I've found they'd be AG-1XX in naming.

[Symon]

Can't really help you but your question deserves some kind of answer. RAGs didn't get institutionalized till way after the war was over. Presumably, there were some squadrons that kinda got a provisional mission (without designation) in support of Naval requirements. They would likely have received nominal squadron identifiers, so it's almost impossible to say which ones were which. You probably have the best take on this. Keep on keeping on. JWE

[jcjordan]

You're right to a point as the term RAG was Korea & later- there were some groups that were kinda like the US equivalent of Commonwealth OTUs formed in the mid-late 44 time frame. I've found CVG97,98,99,100 which had VF,VFB,VB&VT (so naming would be VF97 etc) squadrons so in essence were land based CV groups that served to give pilots final operational training before going to active fleet units (to a degree final clearing house of pilot before going to active combat group). I was able to find more info to flesh what I'm trying to get done accomplished but it took some deep/multiple googling to get those leads. My goal was to get this info to create these kinds of groups to give that final few months of on map training pilots need in the game since for the most part the skills that game pilots come out of the repl pool amt to barely able to fly a plane much less do any kind of combat role. The USAAC was pretty easy since they had dedicated training groups. The Brit & CW were fairly easy just had to find the OTUs for each country & what was the main training role of that unit (F,B,Pat,etc)

[wdolson]

One area that might help to research is to look into the USS Sable and Wolverine. These were Great Lakes merchant ships that were converted to training carriers. Most carrier trained pilots had to learn the ropes on these carriers. After mid-1944 the Ranger was also pressed into training duties off the West Coast. I don't know what units were associated with these training commands, but this might produce some leads into finding out.

Bill

[jcjordan]

Thanks I'll see what Sable & others come up w/ but I assume those would represent more the final(advanced) phases of training before graduation so would actually show more in the 9-12mon queue in the game. From what I've seen of Ranger she still had her original group of CVG-4 but pilots could cycle in/out all the time. I did find a post from a ww2 forum in my searching that gave a good breakdown of how USAAC/USN/USMC did flight training from primary thru graduation in type & how many hrs each stage

[wdolson]

I read a book many years ago about a Marine replacement pilot who went through training in Santa Barbara on the SBD. He never got to combat. He was on his way to Okinawa when the war ended. The book was about his adventures going through the training system.

I read that the Ranger's air group was removed when it became a training carrier, though I might be misremembering. The USN air unit records don't show any aircraft embarked on the Ranger when she moves to the Pacific.

The USN has released PDF scans of biweekly aircraft strength reports from the war years. I don't know if they are still out there on the USN history site. I downloaded them a while back.

Bill

[jcjordan]

That's one of my bookmarked sites & where I got some of the info

[packerpete]

Could you repost the link please? Been looking for it ever since the puter crashed and have not been successful.

[jcjordan]

Here's the air link but it's only part of a bigger info link I've used from time to time on things

http://www.history.navy.mil/a-record/ww ... loc-ac.htm

[spence]

Ranger had Air Group 4 assigned while in the Atlantic. Air Group 4 operated from USS Essex and USS Bunker Hill when the ship transferred to the Pacific for its training duties.

Details and some neat photos of AG 4's actions off Norway against the Germans in 1943 are at:

http://www.airgroup4.com/