09/01/2026
Just five years after World War II ended, the F4U Corsair was back at war, this time fighting to prevent U.N. forces from being driven out of Korea.
On 1 September 1950, North Korean forces launched a massive offensive against the Pusan Perimeter, the shrinking defensive line surrounding the southeastern corner of South Korea. The situation quickly became critical.
Nearly 300 miles away in the Yellow Sea, the aircraft carriers USS Valley Forge (CV-45) and USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) were conducting strikes against targets around Pyongyang and Seoul as part of Task Force 77. When the call for help arrived, Rear Admiral Edward C. Ewen ordered the task force southeast at 27 knots and redirected its aircraft toward the fighting around Pusan.
The first Navy strike package reached the perimeter around 2:30 p.m. It included 12 AD Skyraiders carrying three 1,000-pound bombs apiece and 16 F4U Corsairs, each armed with a 1,000-pound bomb and four 5-inch rockets. The Corsairs came from VF-53 and VF-54 from Valley Forge as part of Carrier Air Group 5, while VF-113 and VF-114 operated Corsairs from Philippine Sea with Carrier Air Group 11.
Close air support was still a work in progress. In one potentially disastrous incident, 14 Navy aircraft were directed toward what controllers identified as a concentration of enemy tanks. The strike leader became suspicious when the tanks made no effort to defend themselves, spotted the white stars identifying them as American, and called off the attack.
Despite problems coordinating aircraft and ground controllers, Navy aircraft flew 83 sorties in support of the Pusan Perimeter that day as American and South Korean forces struggled to contain the North Korean offensive.
