Lieutenant Wilson was deployed to the Pacific theater with the 9th Marines in February 1943, making stops at Guadalcanal, Efate, and Bougainville.
The group moved to Efate in November 1943 and remained there until June 1944.
Remains of M. damelipi have been found on the island of Efate in Vanuatu, associated with settlements from the Lapita culture.
Another Holocene species is known, M. kolpokasi which lived on the island of Efate, Vanuatu approximately 3,000 years ago (again disappearing with the arrival of man).
Efate |
On February 15 the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center in Nadi, Fiji (RSMC Nadi) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), reported that a tropical depression had developed within an monsoon trough, about 700 km (435 mi) to the northeast of Port Vila on the Vanuatuan island of Efate.
The municipality of Franceville (present-day Port Vila) on Efate or Sandwich island was established during the period when the New Hebrides were a neutral territory under the loose jurisdiction of a joint Anglo-French naval commission.
On October 26, 1943 the squadron departed for the South Pacific, The flying echelon of the squadron was based out of Munda (Solomon Islands) while the ground echelon was based at Efate.
Beginning in December 1943, the squadron was part of Strike Command and operated out of airfields on Efate, Munda and Bougainville.