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Captain Miguel Moreno Arreola of Esquadron 201
Description
Captain Miguel Moreno Arreola of Esquadron 201(January 5, 1921 –December 2, 2005) Captain Moreno was born in the state of Durango during the turbulent aftermath of the Mexican Revolution. As a boy he was inspired by a chance encounter with famous aviation pioneer Francisco Sarabia. He entered the Military Aviatoin School at Monterrey, where he met presidents Manuel Avila Camacho and Franklin D. Roosevelt at their summit conference in March, 1943. He received his wings in June, 1944 and joined Fighter Squadron 201, acompanying the unit to the United States for training. He deployed with the Squadron to the Philipines in March, 1945 and flew 25 close air support combat missions over Luzon in P-47s as an element leader plus Very Long Range missions to Formosa. It was he who chose the Disney character "Pancho Pistolas" as the official unit logo; he also designed a monument to his fallen comrades that still stands in Manila. When the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force returned to Mexico City on November 18, 1945, Captain Moreno carried its Battle Flag into the national plaza to be presented to the President.(rudeerude)
Recent comments
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@tanker234:
Why would this gentleman's squadron be any more of a "joke" than any American fighter unit that entered late in the war? or any pilot for that matter?
BTW, the war may have cost "thousands of American lives." But...
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This squadron was a joke. Too late for any serious fighting and just close support of units containing bypassed Japanese forces on Luzon.
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This unit was a token unit just for show. They had no impact on a war that had cost thousand of American lives. My dad, and all his cousins, brother, uncles served in this war in the Pacific as Marines, Army or Navy. Even one of our family was killed in...
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Our Colegio Mexico school had the distinction 3 yrs. ago of having lunch and a speech from Commander Garduño, chief of the Mexican Escuadron 201 in the Phillipines.He told us how their American Commander asked them to strafe Jap artillery and machine...
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Proud to be from Durango state and assisted democracy in THE most important event in the 20th.century
@alberto:
If you mean the P-47 "was not suited" to close ground support, you're rather wrong! The P-47 was an excellent diving platform and the choice for ground attack in the European Theater by the USAAF...