In the late summer of 1945, Lt.Col. (Ret.) John Ree, of the 4th Emergency Rescue Squadron, flew a very important mission, carrying the Japanese Instrument of Surrender to the USS Missouri to be signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Provisional Government of the French Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Dominion of New Zealand. This brought an end to the Second World War.