Additional personnel were added and three flights were formed.  Because of the war emergency in the Pacific, “A” Flight was hastily moved out to Australia aboard the S.S. President Coolidge on March 19, 1942.  The 8th Photo Squadron was in the war zone at Melbourne Australia by April 7, 1942.  Leading the flight with no more than four F-4 lightning aircraft was 1Lt. Karl L. “Pop” Polifka, who practically singlehandedly flew the 8th Squadron’s first operational flights in the late April and early May 1942.

Polifka joined the Army Air Forces in the late 1930’s after leaving the construction business in Oregon.  He had come from a Russian-Czech family, which gave him a solid dislike of the Axis point of view.  He learned the photo reconnaissance occupation well and became one of the great American reconnaissance aces.  After commanding the 8th squadron until November 1942 he was reassigned to Europe to photograph the Third Reich.

While flying over the Pacific, he learned the valuable arts of improvisation to secure badly needed photos of the advancing Japanese.  He began to take photos as early as April to become a legend in the effort to halt the Japanese fleet before the resulting battle in the Coral Sea.

On May 2, 1942, Polifka and “A” flight arrived at Townsville, which finally gave the F-4s a reasonable base on the northern coast of Australia.  “B” and “C” Flights arrived in Melbourne on July 16 aboard the S.S. Masonia and joined their sister flight at Townsville on July 27 1942, to complete the 8th Photo Squadron in the combat zone.  An Advance party of three officers and eighty enlisted men left from Port Moresby on September 5, and a few weeks later the entire squadron was together and operating from Schwimmer Drome, north of Port Moresby.  The squadron flew from Schwimmer until January 5, 1944.