Gen. Moses: You had no mats, of course. They could improvise runways?
 
Major Fisher: We were operating under extreme field conditions. Another 
 
thing that came up was in fighting from island to island, if you leave many 
 
people you lose them. If you have a small group of maintenance men and combat 
 
crews and you have to leave a place, you can take them with you.
 
Col. Blair: You would recommend considerable reduction in Tables as we have 
 
them today?
 
Major Fisher: The 2 Squadrons of Bombers - 15 - B-17's - operating at Del 
 
Monte had only about 100 men besides the combat crews. It is amazing what 
 
you can operate with when you have to.  The men were overworked. The first 
 
week or two it was terrific. The combat crews did their own maintenance and 
 
bomb loading for a couple of days.
 
Col. Thomas: Is there any necessity for Ordnance Companies, pursuit and 
 
bombardments ?
 
Major Fisher: It won't work in the Theater of Operations. We need air bases 
 
and depots. In a Theater of Operations about all you can do is just fix 1st 
 
echelon maintenance and not too much of that and load your bomb, ammunition, 
 
gasoline, oxygen and food. We need to split up in small fields. Only operate 
 
6 or 8 airplanes on one field. Fighting in the islands is different from
 
fighting on the mainland. All of our transportation was accomplished by air. 
 
There were no transports, no boats.
 
Col. Whiteley: What is the difference between pursuit and bombardment?
 
Major Fisher: For pursuit unit at Noro about 35 airplanes, 1 squadron 
 
strength 100 men, total 42 pilots. As we lost planes and strength diminished, 
 
we started to evacuate excess men above the strength necessary to operate.
 
That was necessary because no reinforcements were coming. They operated
                                                           
                         - 8 -