Excerpt from Wing History - "Brief"
by: Lt. Col. Bud Biteman, RET.
The Group was redesignated "18th Fighter-Bomber Group" in Jan.'50, and once again completed their conversion to Lockheed's much improved P-80C jet fighters.
LCol. Wintermute, soon promoted to Colonel, became 18th Fighter Bomber Group C.O. on 16 June, 1950, just nine short days before the invasion of South Korea by North Korean Communist forces on 25 June, 1950.
Upon learning of the North Korean attack, Far East Air Forces, FEAF, ordered 13th Air Force to form the "Dallas Provisional Squadron ... from amongst the most experienced P-51 pilots in the 18th Group's three squadrons".
Although the Group had mothballed and disposed of their Mustangs six months previously, and were currently flying the P-80C jets, the "Dallas" unit was quickly formed with volunteers from the many highly experienced Mustang pilots of the 12th, 44th, and 67th squadrons, as well as other 18th and Base personnel. Captain (soon to be Major) Harry H. Moreland, of the 12th Squadron, was named to Command the newly-formed combat unit when it moved north to Japan, thence to the primitive dirt airstrip at Taegu (K-2), Korea, arriving on 10 July, 1950 ...without aircraft. 1Lt. 'Bud'. Biteman, again a combat pilot, became the unit's S-2 Officer as well. Moreland's Dallas Sqdn. was promptly merged with volunteers from Major Dean Hess's "Bout One" unit... whose Japan-based pilots had delivered ten derelict P-51 Mustangs donated by President Truman to the small, hopelessly untrained South Korean Air Force, and had then remained to fly combat missions against the enemy. The combined "Bout One" and "Dallas Provisional Squadron" became, for a brief period, the "51st Provisional Squadron", commencing to fly the remainder of the initial ten Mustangs against the enemy from Taegu's rough runway from 14 July, 1950. They were soon redesignated the 12th Fighter-Bomber Squadron, following arrival of the 18th Fighter-Bomber Group Hdqtrs. at Taegu on 28 July, 1950.
