 In September, the 45th squadron also deployed to the western Pacific for combat operations, leaving the 47th and 78th with group headquarters in Hawaii.Then, in April 1944, the deployed elements of the 15th Fighter Group returned to Hawaii and began training for very long range bomber escort missions, obtaining North American P-51 Mustangs later in the year.In January 1945, ordered into combat, the group left Hawaii for Saipan in the Marianas Islands, remaining there until a landing strip could be secured by the Marines on Iwo Jima.