Okinawa is the largest island in the Ryukyu Island chain in the Northern Pacific ocean, Southwest of the Japanese mainland. The detachment on Okinawa included Captain Louis J. Conti, the Officer in charge of the detachment, Lieutenants W.B. Fielder, R.H. Ford, R. Frew, B.A. Goewey and H.R. Vautherot. A ground support group of approximately twenty enlisted men, was led by T/Sgt. Emil Tomczyk. On the second tour, Lieutenants G.J. Hill, D.W. Johnson and R.E. Riecks joined the detachment. Also joining the detachment was Lieutenent L. Esterak, an Air Intelligence Officer. The Okinawa detachment took part in the tail end of the Okinawan Campaign and was awarded the campaign medal for that operation. The detachment was performing front line coverage for ground forces involved in the battle for Okinawa. During the battle, the japanese made continuous attempts to land on the allied held airstrips and subjected the Allied installations to nightly bombing raids. The first detachment was brought back to Guam, reorganized and returned to Okinawa. It was assigned top priority missions to photograph the beaches on Kyushu for the Allied Invasion of the Japanese Homeland, scheduled for 1 November 1945 (Operation OLYMPIC). This was a tremendous task with only a handful of pilots and support personnel to accomplish this mission. VMD-354 never had more than four F6F Hellcats available and eight pilots with sixteen to twenty enlisted support personnel assigned to carry out their mission. Supplies and parts depended on the ingenuity of the ground personnel while the aerial photo processing and distribution requirements depended on the Navy Lab. VMD-354 was detached to the 10th Tactical Air Force, X Army, and the Photographic Reconnaissance missions had a General MacArthur priority. The flight, to and from Japan, took about six hours flying time. The F6F-5P was rigged to carry three external fuel tanks, so that they were carrying more fuel externally than the aircraft's internal fuel capacity. Due to the conditions of the runways at the Yontan Airfield, the take-offs of the aircraft with the external fuel tanks, made for a terrifying experience. On the first sortie to Kyushu, thirty-two Marine Corps F4U Corsairs provided fighter cover for the Photo Aircraft. Either insufficient fuel load or overdue aircraft maintenance, the Corsairs were not adequately prepared for the long mission. Several Corsairs had to ditched into the ocean before reaching home base. From that time forward, Air Force P-47's provided the fighter escort. It was always a source of amusement to the Marine Photo Pilots to hear the comments of the Air Force Pilots when their twelve to twenty-four P-47's would join up on two Marine Corps F6F's over a rendezvous point. They couldn't understand why so many of them were needed to protect two Marine Photo airplanes. Once they got to Kyushu, they realized why and after the word got back, they were always ready and willing to provide the protective escort service. The Marine Corps pilots did all of the navigation for the missions, and the Air Force pilots entrusted them with the navigation. Regardless of the weather, the photo pilots always got to the targets and back home safely. Okinawa-cont'd