Soon after V-J Day, men who had served with the 3rd Bomb Squadron were finally on their way back home, but members of a six-man aircrew were still listed as missing in action. Cpl. James J. Ryan Jr. had been radio-gunner in the top turret of a rocket-equipped B-25J-2, A/C #722, that went missing on May 16, 1945. It had failed to return from a bombing and strafing raid against the Japanese-held airfield at Ichang. Details of the mission and the fate of its crew were not confirmed until long after the end of hostilities.

The month of September 1945 marked the final period of existence of the CACW. “Almost two years of operations were climaxed in August by the sudden ending of the war, thus bringing about the disbanding of the Chinese-American Composite Wing,” wrote the 1^st Bomb Group’s acting historical officer. Conceived by Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, famed former commander of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), the CACW took Chennault’s plan to assist the Chinese even further than his previous efforts. Their mission to paralyze the infrastructure of the Japanese War Machine and to inhibit enemy troop movements by destroying cargo caravans, troop transports, railroads, tunnels, and bridges was unquestionably successful.