VMF-321 was established 1 February 1943 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, as a unit of Marine Aircraft Group 31, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
After a crash course in tactics and maneuvers, the squadron was off to the war in the South Pacific.
They were initially stationed at Barakoma Airfield on Vella Lavella, a recently captured island base in the Solomon Islands.

First Lieutenant Robert B. See made the squadron's first kill four days after arriving on the island.
While in the Solomon's, the "Hell's Angels" amassed a record of 39 kills of Japanese aircraft and an additional 11 probables, with only eight aircraft lost.
At one time the squadron was scoring at least one kill and/or one probable a day with its F4U Corsair aircraft.
Captain J. R. Norman, assisted by wingman Lieutenant Philip B. Talbott, once downed four planes in a single day.

Major Edmund F. Overend, the squadron's Commanding Officer, who had come to the squadron with 5.83 credited kills from his services with the American Volunteer Group in China, accounted for three more confirmed kills.

The squadron transferred north to the area around Guam, where pilots took over "milk run" bombings of neighboring islands and played a major role in knocking out Japanese bases from which attacks against American bomber bases were being launched.
VMF-321 was established 1 February 1943 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, as a unit of Marine Aircraft Group 31, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. After a crash course in tactics and maneuvers, the squadron was off to the war in the South Pacific. They were initially stationed at Barakoma Airfield on Vella Lavella, a recently captured island base in the Solomon Islands.
First Lieutenant Robert B. See made the squadron's first kill four days after arriving on the island. While in the Solomon's, the "Hell's Angels" amassed a record of 39 kills of Japanese aircraft and an additional 11 probables, with only eight aircraft lost. At one time the squadron was scoring at least one kill and/or one probable a day with its F4U Corsair aircraft. Captain J. R. Norman, assisted by wingman Lieutenant Philip B. Talbott, once downed four planes in a single day.
Major Edmund F. Overend, the squadron's Commanding Officer, who had come to the squadron with 5.83 credited kills from his services with the American Volunteer Group in China, accounted for three more confirmed kills.
The squadron transferred north to the area around Guam, where pilots took over "milk run" bombings of neighboring islands and played a major role in knocking out Japanese bases from which attacks against American bomber bases were being launched.
VMFA-321