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Marine Air Warning Squadron 8, also known as MAWS-8, was an aviation command and control unit of the 2nd Marine Air Wing in World War II. Their mission was to provide aerial surveillance and early warning for the amphibious assaults on and around the island of Okinawa.

It was formed on 1 March, 1944, at MCAB Cherry Point, NC. It initially held 14 officers and 186 enlisted personnel. The Commanding Officer was Capt. Frank B. Freese, and the Executive Officer was Capt. Frank G. Casserly. Notable among the enlisted personnel was a sergeant named Ernest Thorwald Johnson who had just signed as an amateur free agent with the Boston Braves baseball team. He later played with the Milwaukee Braves and the Baltimore Orioles. When the Braves organization moved to Atlanta, Ernie became the play-by-play commentator and was known as "the Voice of the Braves."

The purpose of the formation of this unit was to place more units of Ground Control Radar and Search Radar in the Pacific Theater. The men initially trained on the SCR527 Ground Control Intercept Radar and the SCR270 Search Radar. After jungle training in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune and MCAS Cherry Point, MAWS-8 traveled across country via troop train to MCAD Miramar, arriving 6 May 1944. Training continued and on 5 June the unit was moved to MCAS Mohave, a 14 hour trip via motor convoy. Desert training with the radar stations continued until Thanksgiving Day, 1944, when they were returned to Miramar. After holiday R&R squadron personnel were again loaded in cattlecars on 3 January 1945 for transport to the San Diego docks and embarked onto the USS Natrona, APA 214, the Victory ship which would take them to war. They arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 January 1945. Operations in Hawaii at MCAS Ewa included more training such as boarding and debarking the landing crafts on Ewa Beach.