4th Airlift Squadron

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4th Airlift Squadron
McChord Air Force Base, Washington
Nickname(s)Fightin' Fourth[citation needed]
Engagements
European-African-Middle East Campaign World War II
  • Tunisia
  • Sicily
  • Naples-Foggia
  • Rome-Arno
  • Southern France
  • North Apennines
  • Po Valley
  • India-Burma with Arrowhead


Korean War

  • Chinese Communist Forces Intervention
  • First UN Counteroffensive
  • CCF Spring Offensive
  • UN Summer-Fall Offensive


Armed Forces Expeditionary Streamer

  • Operation Just Cause (Panama), 1989–90[1]
Decorations
Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm[1]
Insignia
4th Airlift Squadron Emblem (approved 25 September 2007)[1]
4th Airlift Squadron emblem (early)[note 2]
Patch with 4th Troop Carrier Squadron emblem (approved 17 September 1942)[2]

The 4th Airlift Squadron is part of the

McChord Air Force Base), Washington. It operates Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft supporting the United States Air Force
global reach mission worldwide.

Mission statement

Provide services and support, which promote quality of life and project global power through combat-proven airlift.[citation needed]

History

Origins

Prior to the early 1930s, transport aircraft in the

Materiel Division, proposed the formation of a transport squadron at each air depot to act as a cadre for the transport wing the Air Corps proposed to support a field army in the event of mobilization. Major General Benjamin Foulois approved the formation of four provisional squadrons in November 1932.[3]

The 4th Provisional Transport Squadron was constituted on 1 October 1933 and allotted to the Fifth Corps Area. It was organized with reserve personnel by March 1934 at Bowman Field, Kentucky as a Regular Army Inactive unit.[4][note 3]

In the spring of 1935, the provisional transport squadrons, including the 4th Transport Squadron at

Bellanca C-27 Airbus aircraft assigned. The reserve officers of the unit were reassigned.[4] With enlisted men as pilots, the squadron hauled engines, parts, and other equipment to airfields in the Rockwell Air Depot area, returned items to the depot, and transferred materiel between depots. It also furnished transportation for maneuvers. The rapid transport of supplies by the squadrons permitted the Air Corps to maintain low levels of materiel at its airfields, relying on replenishment from depot stocks only when needed.[3]

In May 1937, the squadron was reassigned from the Rockwell Air Depot to the newly activated

McClellan Field.[1]

World War II

After the

Tafaraoui Airfield, Algeria.[5]

In combat, performed resupply and evacuation missions across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia during

Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. It towed gliders to Syracuse, Sicily and dropped paratroopers at Catania during the operation. After moving to Sicily, the squadron airdropped supplies to escaped prisoners of war in Northern Italy in October. I operated from Sicily until December until moving to Italian mainland.[5]

The squadron supported the

Mediterranean Theater of Operations in July 1944, it carried paratroopers during Operation Dragoon the invasion of Southern France in August 1944. The squadron then returned to operations over Italy and in the Balkans until end of combat in Europe, May 1945. In all the 4th earned nine campaign streamers during operations in both the European and China-Burma-India theaters in the Second World War. The squadron was inactivated at the end of 1945[5]

Korean War

The squadron was reactivated September 1946, being assigned to the troop carrier squadron training school at

62d Troop Carrier Wing became the host unit at the airfield. It conducted routine peacetime transport operations, training with Army units at Fort Lewis with simulated combat parachute training drops flying Curtiss C-46 Commandos and the new Fairchild C-82 Packet combat cargo aircraft, designed to operate from forward, rugged airfields.[5]

With the outbreak of the

Far East Air Forces (FEAF) units for the next year. The squadron was re-equipped with Douglas C-54 Skymaster 4-engine cargo aircraft where it flew combat resupply missions over the Korean peninsula, supporting United Nations ground forces with resupply and casualty evacuation flights from rough airfields to and from FEAF Japanese air bases. It also conducted trans-pacific aerial transportation from the United States. The squadron returned to McChord in November 1951.[5]

Cold War

With its return from Korea, the squadron re-equipped with the new

Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Operation Bali Hai saw the Globemasters fly around the world in a period of 8 to 10 days. The C-124s departed the desert of Moses Lake for Germany and France, where French troops were onloaded for a flight through Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Thailand, and, finally, Vietnam, where the French joined their comrades in Indochina.[5]

By 1955 the

North American Air Defense Command set out to build a chain of radar stations on the northernmost reaches of the continent. This chain of radars, known as the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line), was to detect incoming Soviet missiles and bombers, and give our forces enough warning to launch a counterattack, and get the National Command Authorities to safety. Between 1955 and 1957, the squadron began to fly missions to the Alaskan arctic regions, carrying 13 million pounds of supplies and equipment to build the DEW Line. The resupply of the DEW Line stations kept the Wing occupied until 1969.[5]

Vietnam War

In a realignment of assets, on 1 June 1960, the squadron's parent 62d Troop Carrier Wing moved back to McChord in June 1960. During the early 1960s, the squadron found itself back in Indochina by April 1962. At a time when overt American participation in the war in Vietnam was minimized, the squadron began carrying Army supplies and equipment from

Don Muang Airport
in Thailand, among others.

With the ending of the United States involvement in the

prisoners of war from Vietnam in early 1973. Missions were flown to Hanoi, North Vietnam to pick up the POWs and transport them to Clark Air Base. Subsequently, they were flown back to the United States, to return to their waiting families. In March 1975, with the fall of South Vietnam imminent, the squadron returned to Saigon one last time during Operation Babylift, which carried hundreds of Vietnamese orphans to the United States, where adoptive parents awaited their arrival.[5]

Global airlift

During the 1970s, the squadron returned to a peacetime status, with routine flights around the world carrying personnel, equipment and supplies as needed. This was interrupted in 1978 following the mass murder-suicide of more than 900 people at the Jonestown religious compound in Guyana, South America. The squadron airlifted bodies to a morgue at Dover Air Force Base (most of the victims were U.S. citizens). Crew members reported using their oxygen masks during the flight, in an effort to stifle the stench of decaying bodies in the cargo compartment.[5]

In 1980, the squadron began to exchange its C-141A Starlifters for newer, "stretched" C-141B models. This new version of the aircraft increased its cargo carrying capacity by inserting two fuselage plugs, one forward, one aft of the wings, totaling just over 23 feet in length. Also of note in the B series, an

air refueling receptacle, lending yet longer range to the C-141. Beginning in June 1983, the squadron took full advantage of the longer, air-refuelable C-141B to carry out the perilous mid-winter (June is the beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere) airdrop over Antarctica. Air refueling made possible the trip from Christchurch, New Zealand, to the South Pole and back.[5]

In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Within days the squadron began flying missions to the Middle East as part of

Operation Desert Shield, the effort to deter further aggression from Iraq. The operations tempo was unprecedented. By January 1991, Desert Shield became Desert Storm, as allied air power was unleashed upon the invaders. The squadron joined the rest of Military Airlift Command in providing round-the-clock airlift to the Middle East, keeping the air war supplied, and aiding the buildup of ground forces for the highly successful, though brief, ground war in February. Before long, Kuwait was free, although the effort put forth by the squadron had accelerated the aging process of its C-141s. The increased payloads and almost incessant flying would have lasting negative effects on the fleet.[5]

In early 1992, squadron crews and aircraft began participating in

Operation Restore Hope), rushing food supplies to the starving people of Somalia, the relief of victims of Hurricane Andrew in our own country, and relief efforts for the Guamanian victims of Typhoon Omar kept its crews and aircraft on the move.[5]

In late 1995, President

Operation Joint Endeavor. In January 1996 the squadron, operating under a provisional wing located at Rhein-Main Air Base Germany, continued supporting airlift missions into Tuzla and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzogovina. and Taszar in support of Operation Joint Endeavor. In April 1996, the squadron provided equipment and personnel transportation in support of an Air Expeditionary Force in the middle eastern Kingdom of Jordan as part of Operation Southern Watch.[5]

On the night of 15 May 1996, aircrews took part in Big Drop III, the largest airdrop since World War II. The squadron helped deploy members of the Army

Typhoon Linda devastated the area in early November 1997. The typhoon unleashed torrential rains and winds that wiped out coastal villages, killed hundreds of people and left thousands homeless.[5]

In 2000, the squadron retired its C-141 Starlifters for the new

McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster III airlifter. In a response to the terrorist attacks against America on 11 September 2001, President George W. Bush initiated war against terrorism named Operation Infinite Justice, later renamed Operation Enduring Freedom. The squadron supported these efforts by airlifting troops and supplies destined for Afghanistan. It also flew humanitarian airdrops that hundreds of thousands of the rations for starving Afghans. Flights in support of Coalition efforts in Afghanistan continue to the present day.[6]

In January 2003 additional personnel and aircraft deployed to locations all around the world in support airlift operations. By the end of January all aircraft supporting this effort would fly their missions from

Operation Just Cause, was the first combat insertion of paratroopers using C-17s. Operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom continued until the United States withdraw from Iraq at the end of 2011.[6]

Lineage

  • Constituted as the 4th Provisional Transport Squadron on 1 March 1935
Redesignated 4th Transport Squadron on 25 June 1935
Activated on 8 July 1935
Redesignated 4th Troop Carrier Squadron on 4 July 1942
Inactivated on 13 December 1945
  • Activated on 7 September 1946
Redesignated 4th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium on 23 June 1948
Redesignated 4th Troop Carrier Squadron, Heavy on 12 October 1949
Redesignated 4th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy on 8 July 1962
Redesignated 4th Military Airlift Squadron on 8 January 1966
Redesignated 4th Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991.[1]

Assignments

Stations

Aircraft

References

Notes

Explanatory notes
  1. ^ Aircraft is Boeing C-17A Globemaster III, serial 98-50. the airmen were finishing a 120-day deployment to Incirlik.
  2. ^ This variation was used by the squadron through several designations, but was apparently never approved. Compare Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 31–32 with Endicott, pp. 345–346
  3. ^ Regular Army Inactive units were units that were constituted in the regular army. Although they were not activated, they were organized with reserve personnel during the 1920s and early 1930s. Even though they had reserve personnel assigned, they were not Organized Reserve units. Because they had no regular personnel they were still considered inactive in the regular army. Clay, p. vi
Citations
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Bailey, Carl E. (14 April 2008). "Factsheet 4 Airlift Squadron (AMC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  2. ^ Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 31–32
  3. ^ a b c Maurer, Aviation in the U.S. Army, pp. 367–368
  4. ^ a b Clay[page needed]
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "62d Airlift Wing office of history". Archived from the original on 23 February 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  6. ^ a b McChord Air Museum, 2000 to 2010

Bibliography

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

External links
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