Dec. 7, 1941, began as a red-letter day for aviation buffs in Whatcom County.

Starting at 10 a.m., the public could visit and drive on the three runways at the new Bellingham airport, which was being dedicated after five years of work. It was a sunny day.

The same morning that several thousand people packed the local airport to celebrate, Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor, pulling the United States into World War II.

The next day, county commissioners offered the airport to the War Department. By Dec. 10 the Army Air Corps accepted. What became known as Bellingham Army Air Field was closed to the public.

A few days earlier, life had been a peacetime whirlwind for pilots in the 39th Fighter Squadron, one of the few combat-ready squadrons in the country. The squadron had just relocated from an airfield in Michigan to a base in Indiana.

Frank Royal, the son of a Colorado rancher who loved planes, flew his P-39 Airacobra to the Indiana airfield on Dec. 6. Once there, he happily learned that he had been granted immediate leave to return to Michigan, where he could visit his girlfriend, whom he later married.

With the Japanese attack the next day, Royal hustled back to Indiana. About midnight Dec. 7 the squadron's new orders came through. They were to fly to the West Coast as soon as possible, and would soon call Bellingham home for a short but memorable stay.

BELLINGHAM REUNION

Royal, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., plans to return to Bellingham in October for the 70th anniversary of the squadron's wartime stint here. His trip is tied to the 39th Fighter Squadron Association's annual reunion, its first in Bellingham.

It will be Royal's first visit to Bellingham since the war.

"My memories of this holiday period are pretty vague, except that the B'ham folks I had contact with were all very friendly and gracious," Royal, who is 96, recalled in an email. "As a flight leader I had little time to socialize."

On Oct. 15, the Heritage Flight Museum, which is near the airport, will host a homecoming celebration for the squadron, an event that organizers hope will mirror the warm welcome that community members gave the squadron during those early days of the war.

With their new orders, Royal and the other squadron pilots reached California after several days, slowed by bad winter weather along the way. Later that month they arrived at Paine Field in Everett. The next day, Dec. 25, two of the squadron's four flight groups took off for Bellingham, with Royal leading one of the groups.

The other groups stayed in Everett because the Bellingham airport wasn't built-up enough to handle all of the squadron's 300 personnel.

As Bellingham residents filed out of church from Christmas services, the pilots greeted them overhead by flying in an "arrow" formation and passing over the city two times.

Once on the ground, squadron officers went taken to Bellingham Hotel, now Bellingham Towers, where they were housed and were greeted by local officials. Other squadron members slept temporarily on cots in a school gym.

"Many Bellingham residents rose to the spirit of this Christmas day to extend invitations to their homes," Royal later wrote. "Some of the folks accepted, but others said thanks and elected to stay where they were to make or receive calls from families or friends left behind."

With fear running high about Japanese attacks on the mainland, the squadron remained on alert and patrolled coastal waters. The routine soon became boring, but that changed when the squadron returned to Everett in mid-January. Before long they were off to battle, with some pilots assigned to duty in the South Pacific and some off to England.

They went on to become a highly decorated unit during the war.

CEREMONIES PLANNED

The squadron association's reunion runs Oct. 12-16, with a bus trip to Paine Field and a banquet dinner among the activities planned. In connection with the flight museum's monthly "fly day," Frank Royal and other association members plan to visit the museum, where heritage aircraft are on display and where several current members of the 39th based in Texas are expected to arrive in their Beechcraft T-6 Texan II planes.

The event runs from noon to 4 p.m. at the museum, 4165 Mitchell Way. Kate Simmons, program director at the museum, said local officials will greet squadron members. She hopes members of the public show up early to do the same.

"When the 39th first arrived in Bellingham, Christmas 1941, they were young, scared and the first deployed fighter squadron of the war," she said. "What they have told me they remember most about Bellingham was the outpouring of hospitality and welcome that was extended to them.

"I'd like to see our community do that again at this event - come out, welcome them back, show them the same support that we did in 1941."

COMING UP

What: Heritage Flight Museum "fly day," with a celebration greeting the 39th Fighter Squadron Association.

When: noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15.

Where: The museum is at 4165 Mitchell Way, by Bellingham International Airport.

More: Admission is $5; free for veterans and active military. Details: 360-733-4422 or heritageflight.org.