Svoboda | Graniru | BBC Russia | Golosameriki | Facebook
Jump to content

459th Airlift Squadron

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

459th Airlift Squadron
The first squadron C-12J arriving at Yokota Air Base, 29 June 2007
Active1942–1944; 1944–1945; 1952–1952; 1966–1970; 1975–1993; 1993–present
Country United States
Branch United States Air Force
RoleAirlift
Part ofPacific Air Forces
Garrison/HQYokota Air Base
DecorationsDistinguished Unit Citation
Presidential Unit Citation
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm
Insignia
459th Airlift Squadron emblem[a][1]
459th Airlift Squadron emblem[b][2]
459th Bombardment Squadron emblem[c][1]

The 459th Airlift Squadron is part of the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It operates the UH-1N Iroquois and the C-12J Huron aircraft, performing passenger transport (including VIPs), aeromedical evacuation and search and rescue missions.[3]

History

[edit]

World War II

[edit]

Bombardment training unit

[edit]
B-24 Liberator 42-52161 from Alamogordo Army Airfield[d]

The squadron was first activated at Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah on 6 July 1942 as one of the original four squadrons of the 330th Bombardment Group.[1][4][5] Although equipped early on with some Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, it became a Consolidated B-24 Liberator Operational Training Unit (OTU), moving to Biggs Field, Texas by early September.[1] The OTU program was patterned after the unit training system of the Royal Air Force and involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups"[6] It then assumed responsibility for their training and oversaw their expansion with graduates of Army Air Forces Training Command schools to become effective combat units.[7][8] Phase I training concentrated on individual training in crewmember specialties. Phase II training emphasized the coordination for the crew to act as a team. The final phase concentrated on operation as a unit.[9]

By early 1944 most units had been activated and almost three quarters of them had deployed overseas. With the exception of special programs, like forming Boeing B-29 Superfortress units, training “fillers” for existing units became more important than unit training.[10] The squadron then became a Replacement Training Unit (RTU).[1] RTUs were also oversized unit, but their mission was to train individual pilots or aircrews.[6]

However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units like the 459th, whose manning was based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving not well adapted to the training mission, even more so to the replacement mission. Accordingly, the Army Air Forces adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.[11] As a result, the 330th Bombardment Group and its components, including the 459th, along with all supporting units at Biggs were inactivated or disbanded on 1 April 1944[1][4] and replaced by the 235th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training School, Bombardment, Very Heavy).[12]

B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan

[edit]
Squadron B-29 Superfortress[e]

The squadron was activated the same day at Walker Army Air Field, Kansas as a Boeing B-29 unit. While waiting for new B-29s to come off the production line, it again flew B-17 Flying Fortresses for a short time. It trained at Walker and at Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas until January 1945, when it deployed to the Pacific.[1]

The squadron arrived at its combat station, North Field, Guam in the Mariana Islands in early February 1945.[1] Because the results of high altitude B-29 raids on Japan were disappointing. XXI Bomber Command switched to low altitude night area attacks with incendiaries beginning in March 1945.[13] It flew its first combat mission, an attack on the Hodogaya chemical plant in Koriyama, Japan on 12 April 1945.[4]

During April and May 1945, the squadron was diverted from the strategic campaign against Japan to support Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa.[4] It struck air bases from which kamikaze attacks were being launched. Many of these bases were located on Kyushu, only 300 miles from Okinawa. The attacks directly impacted kamikaze launches, but also forced the Japanese military to retain fighter aircraft to defend the Japanese Special Attack Units that otherwise might have been used to challenge air superiority over Okinawa.[14][f]

The squadron resumed attacking urban industrial areas until the end of the war in August 1945. It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for incendiary raids on the industrial sections of Tokushima and Gifu and a strike against the hydroelectrical power center at Kofu in July 1945. It received a second DUC for a mission attacking the Nakajima aircraft engine plant at Musashino near Tokyo in August.[4]

Following V-J Day the squadron dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners of war and participated in several show of force missions over Japan. It departed the theater in November and was inactivated at Camp Anza, the Port of Embarkation in December 1945.[1][4]

United States Air Force

[edit]

During the Vietnam War the squadron was reactivated at Cam Ranh Air Base, South Vietnam, in 1966. It provided intra-theatre airlift services in Vietnam, including air-land and airdrop assault missions from 1966 to 1970. The unit was inactivated as part of the drawdown of United States forces.[citation needed]

The squadron conducted airlifts of key Department of Defense personnel from April 1975 to March 1978, aeromedical airlifts from March 1978 to November 1991, and operational support airlifts since December 1991.[citation needed]

Operations and decorations

[edit]
  • Combat Operations: Combat in Western Pacific, c. 12 April – 14 August 1945. Intra-theatre airlift in Southeast Asia, January 1967 – May 1970
  • Campaigns: World War II: Air Offensive, Japan; Western Pacific. Vietnam: Vietnam Air Offensive; Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase II; Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase III; Vietnam Air/Ground; Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase IV; TET 69/Counteroffensive; Vietnam Summer-Fall, 1969; Vietnam Winter-Spring, 1970; Sanctuary Counteroffensive
  • Decorations: Distinguished Unit Citations: Japan, 10 May 1945; Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan, 23–29 May 1945. Presidential Unit Citations (Southeast Asia) 21 January – 12 May 1968; 1 April – 30 June 1970; Navy Presidential Unit Citation: Vietnam, 20 January – 1 April 1968; Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device 1 January – 30 April 1967; 1 May 1967 – 30 April 1968; 1 July 1970 – 31 December 1971. Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm: 1 January 1967 – 30 April 1972

Lineage

[edit]

459th Airlift Squadron

  • Constituted as the 459th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 1 July 1942
Activated on 6 July 1942
Inactivated on 1 April 1944
  • Redesignated 459th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy and activated on 1 April 1944
Inactivated on 21 December 1945
  • Redesignated 459th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium on 26 May 1952
Activated in the reserve on 14 June 1952
Inactivated on 14 July 1952
  • Redesignated 459th Troop Carrier Squadron and activated, on 12 October 1966 (not organized)
Organized on 1 January 1967
Redesignated 459th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 August 1967
Inactivated on 1 June 1970
  • Consolidated with the 1400th Military Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991 as the 459th Airlift Squadron
Inactivated on 1 October 1993
Activated on 1 October 1993[1]

1400th Military Airlift Squadron

  • Designated as the 1400th Military Airlift Squadron and activated on 1 April 1975
  • Consolidated with the 459th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991 as the 459th Airlift Squadron[1]

Assignments

[edit]

Stations

[edit]

Aircraft

[edit]

References

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
Explanatory notes
  1. ^ Approved 13 October 2011.
  2. ^ Approved 1 June 1982.
  3. ^ Approved 9 April 1945. Description: On a light turquoise blue disc, border red, piped white, a red centaur having gold tail, white face, and gray hoofs, wearing a red helmet, winged gold, and gray gloves, reared up on hind legs on white cloud formation in base, facing toward sinister, and shooting a jagged gold lightning bolt affixed to bow string of curved bow of the last [color mentioned], all beneath a white cloud formation in dexter chief and flecked with white, five-point stars.
  4. ^ Aircraft is Ford Motors built Consolidated B-24H-10-FO Liberator, serial 42-52161. It later deployed to Europe and was shot down on 22 February 1944. Missing Aircrew Report 2832.
  5. ^ Aircraft is Boeing B-29-75-BW Superfortress, serial 44-70016, Sentimental Journey, Quaker City. After the war this aircraft served as a TB-29 radar evaluation plane, Dopey. Transferred to storage in June 1959, this plane is now on display at the Pima Air Museum on loan from the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Baugher, Joe (9 October 2023). "1944 USAF Serial Numbers". Joe Baugher. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  6. ^ 75% of Twentieth Air Force's missions in April and May 1945 were flown to support Operation Iceberg. Cate & Olson p. 631.
Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Robertson, Patsy (5 April 2012). "Factsheet 459 Airlift Squadron (PACAF)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 1 October 2016.
  2. ^ Endicott, p. 823
  3. ^ Thompson, Paul ‘Operation Friendship’ set for takeoff 18 August 2002 Japan Times Retrieved 1 October 2016
  4. ^ a b c d e f Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 210-11
  5. ^ Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 563-67
  6. ^ a b Craven & Cate, Introduction, p. xxxvi
  7. ^ Goss, p. 74
  8. ^ Greer, p. 601
  9. ^ Greer.p. 606
  10. ^ Goss, pp. 74-75
  11. ^ Goss, p. 75
  12. ^ See No byline (1 September 1944). "Abstract, Vol. 1 History 235 AAF Base Unit". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
  13. ^ Cate & Olson, pp. 612-614
  14. ^ Cate & Olson pp. 641
  15. ^ C-12 Huron Yokota Air Force Base Retrieved 6 November 2016
  16. ^ 459th Airlift Squadron US Air Force Helis.com Retrieved 8 March 2017
  17. ^ Yokota deems UH-1N copters 'completely safe' 3 December 2004Stars and Stripes Retrieved 6 November 2016 Archived 7 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine

Bibliography

[edit]

Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

  • Cate, James L.; Olson, James C. (1953). "Strategic Bombardment from Pacific Bases, Chapter 17, Precision Bombardment Campaign". In Craven, Wesley F.; Cate, James L. (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II (PDF). Vol. V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. LCCN 48003657. OCLC 704158. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  • Goss, William A. (1955). "The Organization and its Responsibilities, Chapter 2 The AAF". In Craven, Wesley F.; Cate, James L. (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II (PDF). Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. LCCN 48003657. OCLC 704158. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  • Greer, Thomas H. (1955). "Recruitment and Training, Chapter 18 Combat Crew and Unit Training". In Craven, Wesley F.; Cate, James L. (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II (PDF). Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. LCCN 48003657. OCLC 704158. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=459th_Airlift_Squadron&oldid=1237455392"