The book is part of the Marines in World War II Commemorative Series. It recounts the Marine Operation in the Pacific and references specific subjects, such as aircraft, personalities, and campaigns.

This historical monograph is one of a series of active duty and Reserve squadron histories. THis volume highlights the significant activities of Marine Fighter Atack Squadron 321 during its more than 40 years of active and Reserve service.

The first major surprise of the post World War II years came into play when in late June 1950, the United States found itself responding in crisis fashion to the North Korean invasion of the new republic of South Korea, just four years and nine months after VJ-Day. The nation became involved in Korea as a result of the Cairo and Yalta conferences in which the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to the concept of a free and independent post-war Korea. Included in the agreement was a joint occupation of the country by the two powers, with the Soviets north of the 38th Parallel and the United States south. The concept of the occupation had a general objective of settling down Korea for a period so that it could learn to govern itself as a nation after many decades of Japanese rule. As the United States was painfully learning, however, it soon became apparent that what the Soviets said was one thing and what they intended was quite another with respect to a free, independent, and democratic Korea. When in 1948, they refused to participate in elections, supervised by the United Nations to form the first National Assembly, the hopes for a united Korea died. The Soviets formed a separate Communist state in their sector, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea. With the elections completed for the National Assembly in the south, the Republic of Korea (ROK) was established and the United States trusteeship in the country came to an end. The main text of this manuscript is derived from Major General John P. Condon's original draft of a history of Marine Corps aviation, an edited version of which appeared as US. Marine Corps Aviation, the fifth pamphlet of the series commemorating 75 years of Naval Aviation, published by the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air Warfare) and Commander, Naval Air Systems Command in 1987. This manuscript is one in a series devoted to U.S. Marines in the Korean War era, and is published for the education and training of Marines by the History and Museums Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, Washington, D.C., as part of the U.S. Department of Defense observance of the 50th anniversary of that war.

Ted W. Lawson's classic "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" appears in an enhanced reprint edition on the sixtieth anniversary of the Doolittle Raid on Japan. "One of the worst feelings about that time," Ted W. Lawson writes, "was that there was no tangible enemy. It was like being slugged with a single punch in a dark room, and having no way of knowing where to slug back." He added, "And, too, there was a helpless, filled-up, want-to-do-something feeling that [the Japanese] weren't coming-that we'd have to go all the way over there to punch back and get even."Lawson gives a vivid eyewitness account of the unorthodox assignment that eighty five intrepid volunteer airmen-the "Tokyo Raiders"-under the command of celebrated flier James H. Doolittle executed in April 1942. The plan called for sixteen B-25 twin-engine medium bombers of the Army Air Corps to take off from the aircraft carrier "Hornet," bomb industrial targets in Japan, and land at airfields in China. While the raid came off flawlessly, completely surprising the enemy, a shortage of fuel caused by an early departure, bad weather, and darkness took a heavy toll of the raiders. For many, the escape from China proved a greater ordeal. Peter B. Mersky provides new information on the genesis of the raid, places it in the context of the early operations against Japan, and updates Ted Lawson's biography.