Pilot's Flight Logs are an important and often missing information crucial for researching the squadron's history with
details about missions (when and where),  their results, planes flown (types and bureau numbers), etc. 
  
We are activly seeking copies of flight logs from VMF-216 pilots or their family members. These details most useful,
that are about the closest we can get to their history.
They are easy to transfer as scanned files and, if necessary, we can scan log books, handle them as we would museum
documents, and return them quickly by secure express mail.
For more details, please contact
Robert Marshall, Jr. or John Kemper.

Understanding the contents of a flight log is fairly easy, with a few definitions and examples.
     
Eight headings of the flight log typically used by World War II pilots are: 
1. Date of the flight
2. Type of Machine, that is, what was the plane flown
3. Number of Machine, the plane's unique Bureau Number
4. Duration of Flight, hours flown.
5. Character of Flight, described as a letter representing one of the types of flight
6. Pilot, name
7. Passengers, name
8. Remarks any events of note during the flight

Here's an example of a typical entry during training at El Centro, 1943.
 
Note that the flights considered non-combat are in black with combat-related flights are red.

These details are logged by the squadron's Intelligence Officer after each flight and are used to log flight hours
and distinguish combat from non-combat missions.

These logs are windows into details even the pilots don't recall, but the flight logs are vital for the details to
round out the squadron's history.