 The squadron was declared operational on 24 September 1943 and ordered to San Diego where the lead echelon of twenty-four pilots and planes would be loaded aboard the new Essex-class carrier USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) for transport to Pearl Harbor, arriving on 3 October.While stationed at MCAS Ewa Field on Oahu, the Corsairs were detached from the squadron, which, on 15 October, was sent by transport to Midway for advanced air patrol training with Marine Air Group 22.There the squadron suffered its first casualties when First Lieutenants Stafford Drake and Edmund Farrell were killed in a mid-air collision with First Lieutenant William Aycrigg.