Chicken squadron

[snopes]

Comment: I am in the Marine Corps and there is a rumor that has persisted
in our ranks for quite a while, at least since WWII. The rumor stems from
the fact that during Japanese invasion of the Philippines the Marine Unit
under army command was forced to surrender and burned thier colors.
because of this the rumor is that the unit which has been reformed is not
allowed to ever set foot on American soil again.

The unit differs depending on who it is that you ask but I belive it
to be 4th Marine Regiment I know that they were the unit involved that
surrendered in that battle but I have been unable to find anything
satating anything to the point that they can or cannot come back to
american soil. I know they are based in Okinawa Japan right now. Is
there any validity to the rumor?

[DesertRat]

Only partially true. The capture of the unit and the burning of the colors happened as described; however, the whole bit about "never being allowed to return to American soil" is nonsense. The Regiment was reformed and reconstitued and eventually was stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA as part of the 1st Marine Division as of 1951. From there they were relocated to K-Bay in Hawaii in 1955, and only relocated to Okinawa in 1972--due to force restructuring, and not the reasons described in the OP.

As it stands now, 4th Marines is a "cadred" regiment--the regimental headquarters does not "own" any subordinate battalions, bur rather "hosts" numerous battalions while they are on UDP to Oki. It's three historically subordinate rifle battalions are currently attached to other regiments in 1st MarDiv--all of which are stationed in CONUS. (1/4 is with 1st Marines at Pendleton, 2/4 is with 5th Marines also in Pendleton, and 3/4 is with 7th Marines at Twentynine Palms.) Kind of puts that old legend to rest.

[ASL]

They must send all the miscreants to Okinawa. There's also a UL that the 18th Air Wing's crest with a black rooster is due to the pilots in the unit evacuating their air base in Korea during the war and leaving all the enlisted behind to fend for themselves. Also partially true because the wing did move to Japan during the war, but I doubt they left the enlisted and officers who weren't air crew behind. Of course the Navy has White Beach on Okinawa, but no ships are stationed there because we're just that awesome and nobody has screwed up enough yet.

[Delta-V]

There was a similar tale told that the 1st Cavalry Divsion was chosen to remain in Korea after the war because their Colors were captured when the North Koreans supposedly overran the division headquarters. The tale probably stems from the 8th Cavalry (under the 1st Cav) being forced back with very heavy losses by North Korean troops in November, 1950 (they were heavily outnumbered). However, the 8th never lost their colors in that battle, although they did leave a large amount of equipment behind.

[ASL]

Originally Posted by Delta-V

However, the 8th never lost their colors in that battle, although they did leave a large amount of equipment behind.

Were they... recoiless rifles???

[Ali Infree]

ASL sez: Were they... recoiless rifles???

I am not touching that one.



Ali "booby, the bad one..." Infree

[snopes]

Comment: Serving in the U.S. Air Force, I have long heard about a "Chicken
Squadron." Rumor is the pilots of this squadron ran off in the face of an
oncoming North Korean onslaught. Instead of flying top cover for them,
they flew off, leaving the maintainers and other personnel to die horrible
deaths, to include torture and hanging by safety wire in the hangar. As it
stands, this squadron is not allowed to land on American soil (even though
an Air Force base is considered as such) until it proves itself.
I cannot find anything on the Web as to the veracity of this claim.
Obviously, the Air Force is not going to publish this info anywhere. I've
heard it could be the 67th FS out of Kadena AB, Japan, or the 26th FS.
I don't believe any of this, but it would be nice to have prooof to refute
the idiots who spread crap like this around.

[snopes]

Comment: I recently heard a story about the "ZZ squadron" in Korea.

So the story went goes, at some point durring the Korean War, a US airbase
was being overrun by North Korea. The pilots took off, but didn't take
the crew chiefs OR kill them (apparently they were instructed to do one or
the other if being overrun, to prevent the enemy from gaining knowledge of
US aircraft.)

Afterwards, the pilots and squadron was disgraced, the squadron was
renamed the "ZZ squadron," and no plane in that squadron can ever return
to the US.

I can not find anything about this on the internet. Any chance its true?

[ASL]

Originally Posted by snopes

The pilots took off, but didn't take
the crew chiefs OR kill them (apparently they were instructed to do one or
the other if being overrun, to prevent the enemy from gaining knowledge of
US aircraft.)

Because enlisted are like cattle... They shoot horses don't they? Ug. There's actually an on going edit war on wikipedia on the Kadena AFB and the 18th Wing pages over whether or not this UL belongs on either page (not as a fact, but as a known UL about the wing). The wiki article still claims that the wing was temporarily relocated to Japan during the war, but I couldn't actually find a mention of it in the unit's history.