Air Warning Squadron 8 (original) (raw)

Air Warning Squadron 8 (AWS-8) was a United States Marine Corps aviation command and control unit that provided aerial surveillance and early warning of enemy aircraft during World War II. The squadron was commissioned on March 3, 1944 and was one of five Marine Air Warning Squadrons that provided land based radar coverage during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. AWS-8, utilizing the callsign "Arsenic," remained on Okinawa as part of the garrison force following the Surrender of Japan. The squadron departed Okinawa for the United States in February 1946 and was quickly decommissioned upon its arrival in California. To date, no other Marine Corps squadron has carried the lineage and honors of AWS-8 to include Marine Air Control Squadron 8 (MACS-8).