On December 16, 1944, VT-17 left Hawaii onboard USS Nassau (CVE-16) enroute to Guam. After one month in Guam, the Air Group embarked for Ulithi in the USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69).

On February 1, 1945 the carrier reached Ulithi and Air Group Seventeen sortied aboard USS Hornet (CV-12). the next few days were spent briefing the flight crews on “Operation Tokyo”. VT-17’s first target was an island very close to Japan. Tokyo culled Hucijo Jima on February 16. The strike was a complete success and that afternoon another strike was sent over Hamarnatsu Airfield on the main island. Anti-aircraft “flak” was minimal and strafing by the squadron was rampant, inflicting extensive damage to the airfield and parked planes. For three days the task force haunted Honshu, hitting airfields such as Toyoliamshi, Kanaya and Chickijima, a “hot spot” of enemy anti-aircraft flak. Chickijima is where (President) George H. W. Bush was shot down. (He was flying a TBM Avenger.)

Note: Ulithi Atoll, in the western Carolines, was seized from the Japanese in the fall of 1944 then served as a naval base for the remainder of the war. Only 350 miles southwest of Guam and 1100 miles east of Manila, Ulithi was not totally immune from Japanese long-range bombers.

The squadron later learned that “Operation Tokyo” had been a diversionary tactic, a feint to keep Empire aircraft on the ground watching the home fires burn. The force then steamed for the primary operations objective, a little island in the Volcano Retto, 650 miles south of Tokyo. where amphibious units were already prepared to strike the island of Iwo Jima. Five support missions were launched to support the Iwo ground forces over a two day period.