Men and Missions of the United States Navy's B-24 Liberator Squadrons Pacific Operations: February 1943–September 1944 This revised and expanded second edition covers USN and USMC squadrons that operated the Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber as the PB4Y-1 in the Pacific from early 1943 through September 1944 in the Central Pacific. Combat air crews consisted of eleven young men typically ages 18 to 26 led by a patrol plane commander in his early to mid-twenties. They flew alone on single-plane patrols often lasting ten or more hours. Alone on patrol there were no witnesses when an aircraft failed to return to base; they simply vanished, leaving little if any clues about their fate. Other aircrews sent to look for the missing would occasionally spot a deflated life raft floating or dye marker spreading across the water - evidence marking where a four-engine bomber and its crew had gone down. AUTHOR: Alan C. Carey is the author of nearly two dozen books and magazine articles on military history with his first book, The Reluctant Raiders, published in 1999 by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. He is also noted for aiding veterans and families in a variety of issues related to military service. 150 b/w photographs