After Pearl Harbor, Joe Foss, Marion Carl, Bob Gaylea and other great fighter pilots held off the Japanese attacks for more than a year trying to contain them at Guadalcanal. The Black Sheep, along with VMF-222 were the first squadrons to start this push north through the Solomons. These squadrons faced hundreds of Japanese planes based at 14 enemy airfields. Losch gives great credit to the Navy SBD dive bombers and their pin-point bombing in destroying gun emplacements and other targets on the islands. These pilots took tremendous loses and received very little recognition. The Black Sheep flew escort and strafing missions with the SBDs along with fighter sweeps operating first from Espritu Santo and later from Vella Lavella. On one of his strafing missions Losch was in a two-plane division where he flew very low, about 150 feet, and his wingman was up at 1,500 feet spotting targets. They happened on a Jap soldier riding a bicycle on a road that ran along the beach. The sight of American fighters in the sky above scared the Japanese soldier so bad that he ran off the road and right into a palm tree. This obviously didn’t alter the outcome of the war but was a just one of the many small events that Losch remembers like it was yesterday.

Losch joined the Black Sheep on their second tour, which called for three weeks of intensive combat and then a rest and relaxation (R&R) period in Sidney, Australia. Living in a tent with a dirt floor, enduring nightly bombing raids and, of course, flying two or three combat missions every day made staying alive and R&R in Sidney “wonderful.” To complete the tour, Losch went back to combat for another three weeks before he could again get to Sidney.

After, Maj. Boyington was shot down and captured on Jan. 3, 1944, VMF-214 was disbanded and Losch and four other pilots were assigned to VMF-211 on Emirau to complete their second six-week combat tour. About this time, the Marine Corps started extending combat tours and Losch said he and his former squadrons mates were stuck for almost two extra months. Losch flew 60 missions, bombing and strafing, and didn’t see one Jap plane. His new skipper didn’t seem to care and it looked like they would be in combat forever. Fortunately for Losch, Major Joe Foss, the famous ace, brought a new squadron to the island and had a tent next door. He was not only a great guy, he had a refrigerator full of beer! Needless to say, Losch and his fellow Black Sheep spent a lot of time with Foss, and Losch said he was sure that he got tired of hearing them complain about not getting relieved. One day Foss flew his Corsair back to Guadalcanal and talked to the general in charge of the Pacific Theater. The next day five new replacements arrived and Losch was headed home. Fifteen years later, Losch saw Joe Foss and Jimmy Doolittle at a Ducks Unlimited speaking engagement in Pasadena, Calif., and had a chance to thank him. When Losch discussed the event with Foss, the fighter ace said, “Fred, I didn’t pull wires with the general to get you boys relieved, I flew to Guadalcanal because I was out of beer!”

After his tour in the Pacific, Losch was transferred stateside to MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., to fly the B-26 Marauder, which the Marines designated JM. The JM was used as a target “tug” to tow long sleeves and provide target practice for big, coastal anti-aircraft batteries. Losch said he had the opportunity to fly a number of different aircraft at Cherry Point. His old skipper, Maj. Hank Miller, who had taken command of the Black Sheep after Boyington was shot down, was also assigned to Cherry Point. Maj. Miller was in command of VMF 911, a squadron formed to fly the new Grumman F7F Tigercat twin-engine fighter. Losch said Miller pulled some strings a got him assigned to the squadron along with Chris Magee, another former Black Sheep pilot.

After completing training, the new Tigercat squadron was assigned to MCAS Miramar, north of San Diego, Calif. As they waited for orders to ship out in the summer of 1945 for the invasion of Japan, the A-Bomb ended the war and Losch, Magee, and nine other pilots who had served long enough, ended their active duty with the Marine Corps. Losch said as he waited for his discharge orders he was talked into being a “mailman” flying a Beech Staggerwing from MCAS El Toro to MCAS Mojave, north of Los Angeles, and back. He said it was the best job he had in the Marine Corps!

In August 1945, the Black Sheep heard that Greg Boyington was alive and the Chance Vought Aircraft Company, builder of the F4U Corsair, arranged for a Black Sheep reunion with Boyington in San Francisco. In the years following the war, Losch and the Black Sheep have met at many charity functions and have raised thousands of dollars for children’s hospitals throughout the country. The Black Sheep legend lives on, and VMF-214 is still an active squadron flying the AV-8 Harrier for the Marine Corps.