91st Cyberspace Operations Squadron

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91st Cyberspace Operations Squadron
RF-4C[note 1]
Active	1917–1957; 1967–1991; 1993–2005; 2007–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Cyberspace Operations
Part of	Air Combat Command
Nickname(s)	Demon Chasers
Engagements	World War I World War II – American Theater Korean Service Medal
Decorations	Distinguished Unit Citation Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (14x) French Croix De Guerre (World War I) Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
Commanders
Notable commanders	Captain George C. Kenney Lieutenant Lowell Smith
Insignia
91st Cyberspace Operations Squadron emblem (approved 13 April 1995)[1]
91st Observation Squadron emblem (approved 12 February 1924)[2]
91st Aero Squadron fuselage marking (approved 18 November 1918)[3]

The 91st Cyberspace Operations Squadron is an active

, Texas.

The 91st delivers

combatant commanders

. It provides the Air Force with manpower.

History

World War I

Established as 91st Aero Squadron in the summer of 1917 at

until April 1919.

Intra-War period

see also: United States Army Border Air Patrol

After returning to the United States, the squadron was reorganized and assigned to Rockwell Field, near San Diego in September 1919. In California, its duties consisted of patrolling the southwestern U.S./Mexican border between California and Arizona, performing forest fire patrols and flying training flights over forested areas along the coast of California while assigned to Crissy Field, near San Francisco. Between 1919 and 1922 the squadron frequently moved between bases in California and Oregon with detachments deployed locally to meet operational needs.

When Crissy Field closed in 1936 for the construction of the

until the late 1930s.

The 91st was reassigned to Wheeler-Sack Army Airfield in upstate New York in September 1941, where it became an observation squadron for the 4th Armored Division. It engaged in overvaluation duties during various maneuvers in New York and Tennessee during buildup of American forces prior to their engagement in World War II.

World War II

U.S. civilian and military leaders were concerned with Nazi Germany's preoccupation with South and Central America. In order to prepare for possible hostilities in its own backyard, the military planners needed accurate charts and maps of all of these regions. Millions of square miles were virtually unexplored and uncharted. The 91st was given the tremendous task of getting this job done through aerial photography.

Elements of the 91st Photographic Mapping Squadron were deployed to the

, aircraft and crews were deployed throughout the area.

Aircraft of Flight "B" saw extensive flight activity over and around such places as

Natal, Brazil

(1945). These operations, mainly aerial mapping, also included intelligence work, providing the United States with a storehouse of cartographic data on these regions that is still in use today.

The 91st was formally attached to the

F-9s

(photo version of the B-17).

Flight "B" was seemingly "everywhere" in the Caribbean region during the war. After the war ended, the squadron was based at

, New Jersey where it engaged in long-distance photo mapping as part of SAC's global strategic reconnaissance mission.

Korean War

With the invasion of

.

The 91st eventually flew the largest number of different airframes in the Korean War and had more assigned personnel than any other flying unit in the Korean War. With over 800 assigned personnel, the squadron had six different types of aircraft assigned, to include the

Convair RB-36 Peacemaker

. Throughout the conflict, the RB-29 and RB-50s were the workhorses of the unit.

The RB-29 flew throughout the Korean peninsula in the early part of the war, but was soon in trouble with Soviet

.

While RB-45 reconnaissance aircraft managed to outrun and outmaneuver MiGs on numerous occasions, they too eventually became targets. Although they were allowed to fly missions to heavily defended northwestern North Korea, after April 1951 they were required to be escorted by

The squadron was also called upon to conduct psychological leaflet drops with its assigned RB-29 aircraft. Not only did the 91st drop Korean "Psyops" leaflets throughout the Korean peninsula and into Manchuria and China, but Russian language leaflets were also dropped as it was suspected that advisers from the Soviet Union were assisting the communist forces.

In addition to bomb damage assessment, targeting and aerial photography for the Bomber Command and FEAF, the 91st conducted Electronic Intelligence (ELINT) and "ferret" missions in theater mapping

and Siberia. In late 1952, six RB-36s were sent to Yakota to fly with the 91st and fly high altitude reconnaissance over Manchurian targets.

Shortly after the

the 91st was withdrawn from the Pacific and returned to the United States and to

aircraft assigned to it.

FICON project

Returning to the United States in late 1954, the 91st was tasked with experimenting with parasite fighters to provide long-range escort for

strategic bombers on intercontinental missions. A lesson learned from the Korean War was that American aircraft were often not able to outrun enemy fighters sent up to shoot or force them down. The U.S. needed a faster platform which also had the range of the larger, slower reconnaissance aircraft being used for reconnaissance work.

The 91st conducted an operational procedure called the

jet aircraft to function as the high-speed reconnaissance aircraft. The specially designed RF-84K would be ferried close to the projected target location, launched in flight, make a high speed pass over the target, then be retrieved and ferried back to its home base of operations. The jet reconnaissance pilots would enter and exit their RF-84 through the B-36's bomb bay to fly away on their reconnaissance missions.

Beginning in 1955, as the 91st SRS tested two F-84 FICON prototypes, the USAF ordered 25 RF-84Ks and began modifying 10 B-36s into GRB-36 FICON carriers. The RF-84K design was a modification of the RF-84F, the USAF's most numerous and advanced tactical reconnaissance aircraft at the time. The only major differences were the RF-84K's retractable hook in the upper part of the nose, rods on either side behind the cockpit, and downward angled horizontal stabilizers (to fit inside the GRB-36's bomb bay).

The RF-84K entered service with the 91st in 1955. For the next year, pilots of the 91st successfully flew their RF-84Ks, but they experienced many near disasters while separating or hooking back up to the GRB-36 carrier aircraft.

Technology soon made this mission obsolete, as the development of the Lockheed U-2 made the need for more vulnerable propeller-driven reconnaissance aircraft obsolete. No longer needed for a long-range, strategic reconnaissance mission, the 91st was inactivated on 1 July 1957.

Tactical Air Command

The squadron was reactivated as a

and retirement of the RF-4C on 30 August 1991, the 91st was inactivated.

Lineage

• Organized as the 91st Aero Squadron (Observation) on 21 August 1917

Redesignated 91st Squadron (Observation) on 14 March 1921

Redesignated 91st Observation Squadron on 25 January 1923

Redesignated 91st Observation Squadron (Medium) on 13 January 1942

Redesignated 91st Observation Squadron on 4 July 1942

Redesignated 91st Reconnaissance Squadron (Bomber) on 2 April 1943

Redesignated 91st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron on 11 August 1943

Redesignated 91st Photographic Mapping Squadron on 9 October 1943

Redesignated 91st Photographic Charting Squadron on 17 October 1944

Redesignated 91st Reconnaissance Squadron, Long Range, Photographic on 15 June 1945

Redesignated 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Photographic on 25 March 1949

Redesignated 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Medium, Photographic on 6 July 1950

Redesignated 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, Fighter on 20 December 1954

Inactivated on 1 July 1957

• Redesignated 91st Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron on 12 April 1967 and activated (not organized)

Organized on 1 July 1967

Inactivated 30 August 1991

Redesignated 91st Intelligence Squadron and activated on 1 October 1993

Inactivated on 5 May 2005

• Redesignated 91st Network Warfare Squadron on 28 June 2007

Activated on 26 July 2007

Redesignated 91st Cyberspace Operations Squadron on 1 July 2015^[1]

Assignments

Stations

World War I

Inter-War period

World War II

• Wheeler-Sack Field, New York, 26 September 1941
• William Northern Field
  , Tennessee, 9 September 1942
• Godman Field
  , Kentucky, 7 November 1942
• Reading Army Air Field
  , Pennsylvania, 22 September 1943

Flights at various points in South and Central America during period November 1943 – August 1946, especially at

Natal, Brazil

, 1945–1946

• Peterson Field
  , Colorado, 25 December 1943
• Buckley Field, Colorado, 2 July 1944^[1]

United States Air Force

Aircraft

See also

• List of American Aero Squadrons
• Kingman Douglass
• List of cyber warfare forces

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

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

• Endicott, Judy G., USAF Active Flying, Space, and Missile Squadrons as of 1 October 1995. Office of Air Force History
• Farquhar, John T. (2015). "Aerial Reconnaissance, the Press, and American Foreign Policy, 1950–1954" (PDF). Air Power History. 62 (4). Air Force Historical Foundation. Retrieved 6 January 2016. (web access limited to members)
• Knaack, Marcelle Size (1988). Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems. Vol. 2, Post-World War II Bombers 1945–1973. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.
  ISBN 0-912799-59-5
  .
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.
  OCLC 15661556
  . Retrieved 20 July 2013.
• Maurer, Maurer (1978). The US Air Service in World War I (PDF). Vol. 1: The Final Tactical Report. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force.
  ISBN 978-1477602-74-4. Archived from the original
  (PDF) on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
• Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947-1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History.
  ISBN 0-912799-12-9
  .

External links

• History of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron
• 91st Aero Squadron Returns Home to Kelly Field^{[permanent dead link]}
• 91st Observation Squadron Photographs (WWI), Special Collections and Archives, Wright State University