Buildup

Battling a tough, well-supplied enemy in Korea, Douglas MacArthur's undernourished Far East Command needed more planes, more transport and, most of all, more ground troops. Some of what was needed was on the way last week. Items: P:On July 9, the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, was told to get ready for the Far East. On the same day antiaircraft units from both Fourth Army Headquarters at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Sixth Army Headquarters in San Francisco, were also alerted for Far Eastern duty.

P: Elements (about 6,000 men) of the 1st Marine Division were preparing to board transports at San Diego. Waiting there for shipping was the 1st Marine Air Wing equipped with AD Douglas attack planes and F4U Corsair fighters.

P: Seventy-five B-29s, the complement of the Fifteenth Air Force's 22nd and 92nd Bomber Wings, left California and Washington last week to join the Far East Bomber Command. The first contingent of 30 planes passed through Honolulu on July 7

P:En route to Far Eastern waters by way of Pearl Harbor was Rear Admiral Walter F. Boone's Task Force Yoke,* made up of the carrier Philippine Sea, the cruisers Helena and Toledo and nine destroyers. The submarine Pickerel and the escort carrier Sicily, its decks loaded with warplanes, were also on their way across the Pacific. Still off the California coast as last week ended, the carrier Boxer and the escort carrier Badoeng Strait were expected to set sail in a few days.

*An unfortunate name for a force in a fight where the enemy accused the U.S. of trying to fasten the imperialist yoke on Asia, but straight out of the Navy's alphabet. "Yoke" is Navy for "Y."

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