The PBY VP-45 in WW-II
"Cats Have Claws" An Original Painting by Don Feight
A PBY squadron was established as VP-45 in Whidbey Island Washington on 21 April 1943 with LT Robert L. Donley as the first, although somewhat unofficial CO. The squadron departed NAS Sand Point, Seattle in six PBYs for duty with FLTAIRWING FOUR, Adak, Alaska. They arrived in the 2 May, and on 13 May departed for Massacre Bay on Attu, where USS CASCO was at anchor. It took 11-12 hours of flight time (no NAVAIDs and seriously bad weather) but all crews made it safely.
Occasionally a PBY couldn’t find Massacre Bay at the flights end, or weather was so bad a landing couldn’t be attempted there, so an open sea landing was made and the crew had to wait for better conditions to get home.
LCDR Carl H. Amme became the first official CO in June and the squadron was expanded to twelve PBYs. One plane lost an engine near the Komandorski Islands on 24 July 1943 and made an emergency landing in a Russian lake. To keep the crew from being interred by the Russians, another crew landed in the lake, rescued the crew and destroyed the PBY.
That same month, two crews made an 1800+ mile night flight to try to bomb Japan but the weather was so bad the results are unknown...great for morale though. The Japanese abandoned Kiska and Attu in August, so the squadron flew sector searches and did what VP squadrons always traditionally do - patrol
Now a quote from a VP-45 crewmember: "On a rare clear and beautiful day, word was received that Captain L. E. Gehres (the wing commander) would arrive for his first visit and inspection at Attu. He landed at Alexia Point, where an airstrip had been built. We were there to greet him. After landing, he proceeded to bestow the Air Medal to his pilot and the Distinguished Flying Cross to himself for... ‘hazardous and meritorious flying under extremely bad weather conditions.' No one was impressed. That night we prepared barbecued salmon for Gehres, his staff, and the squadron. The only recognition we wanted was a survival ‘ribbon."
The squadron returned to Sand Point in October 1943 and most of the PPCs were reassigned and the 1st pilots were promoted to PPC. A new CO, LCDR C. Atkinson, took over and the squadron built up to strength trained for deployment. In March 1944, VP-45 moved via troop train to Norfolk, was outfitted 
with new PBY-5As and, in April, deployed to Belem, Brazil. The skipper, Atkinson, and crew were lost shortly thereafter, on May 10th, in the first fatal crash of a VP-45 aircraft. The aircraft, carrying five officers and five enlisted, crashed 40 miles west of Natal while enroute to Recife, Brazil to visit with the Wing Commander. All nine bodies were found and buried. The cause of the crash was not determined. The plane, PBY-5A BUNO 46520, was demolished as a result of an explosion and fire. As a result, LCDR H. B. Stott became the new CO on 8 June 1944.
On 7 May ’45, LCDR Stott received outgoing orders and LCDR Binion, age 28, took over as CO (see photo above; Binion is on the right). Prior to the change of command, VPB-45 had six aircraft in Ascension Island for ASW patrols but the entire squadron was relocated in March ‘45 to NAF Ipitanga, Brazil for routine patrols and training of Brazilian aircrews. Unexpectedly, on 22 May 1945, the squadron received orders to redeploy back the US and five days later they arrived at NAS Norfolk and reported to Fleet Air Wing FIVE.
A week and a half later, on 7 June 1945, Patrol Bombing Squadron FORTY-FIVE was disestablished. The squadron had been active for 27 months and LCDR Binion had been CO for exactly one month. 
Late in the war, the picture to the right was taken of VP-45 officers in front of a PBY5. Note: The first PBY, the XP3Y-l, had its initial flight in March, 1935.
Post Script: Additional, more detailed information and documents about this wartime squadron are located in the Archives (Misc Archives) section of this website. A good amount of this information was provided to us by Dianne Hofbeck, the daughter of the first CO, LT Robert L. Donley, and Steve Binion, the son of the last CO LCDR Lamar Binion.
The Commanding Officers of VP-45 (PBY)
LT Guy Howard (acting) 10 Mar 1943 - 1 May 1943
LCDR Carl H. Amme 1 May 1943 - 14 Jan 1944
LCDR C. Atkinson 14 Jan 1944 - 8 Jun 1944
LCDR H. B. Stott 8 Jun 1944 - 7 May 1945
LCDR L. E. Binion 7 May 1945 - 5 Jun 1945 (Squadron Disestablished)
WebMaster Note: According to the "Lineage"
rules discussed on the "Squadron History" page of this website, this VP-45 (changed to VPB-45 late in the war) is not actually the same squadron as the existing VP-45 today. The existing VP-45's lineage descends from VP-205 (a PBM Squadron) that was established in 1942 and operated at the same time as this VP-45 (PBY Squadron). Nevertheless, the PBY VP-45 is included in our Association!! In honor of this WW-II squadron, in 2015, I took a small low resolution image of this squadrons "Goofy" logo I scrounged up from somewhere in the internet and recreated it (see left) in Photoshop.
Bill Hobgood
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