960th Airborne Air Control Squadron

960th Airborne Air Control Squadron

960th Airborne Air Control Squadron Patch
Active 15 January 1941 – 27 December 1945
8 March 1955 – 31 July 1969
1 September 1979 – 1 July 1992
1 March 2001 – Present
Country United States
Branch United States Air Force
Type Airborne Command and Control
Part of Air Combat Command
12th Air Force
552d Air Control Wing
552d Operations Group
Garrison/HQ Tinker Air Force Base
Decorations DUC
AFOUA

The 960th Airborne Air Control Squadron (960 AACS) is part of the 552d Air Control Wing at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. It operates the E-3 Sentry aircraft conducting airborne command and control missions.

Mission

Provide the Combat Air Force with airborne systems and personnel for surveillance, warning and control of strategic, tactical, and special mission forces.[1]

History

Established as a pre-World War II B-17 Flying Fortress bomber squadron, activated at Fort Douglas, Utah in January 1941. After training, was assigned to Gieger Field, Washington as part of the Army Air Corps Northwest Air District in July. After the Pearl Harbor Attack, the squadron initially flew antisubmarine patrols along the Northwest Pacific Coastline.

Reassigned to II Bomber Command at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona in February 1942 where the parent group became a B-17 Operational Training (OTU) unit for newly formed heavy bomb groups; operated as a training squadron for new and later replacement bomber crew members. Inactivated on 1 April 1944 with the end of heavy bomber training.[2]

B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan

Re-designated on 1 April 1944 as a B-29 Superfortress Very Heavy bombardment squadron. When training was completed moved to North Field Guam in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific Area in January 1945 and assigned to XXI Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force. Its mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands and the destruction of its war-making capability.

Flew "shakedown" missions against Japanese targets on Moen Island, Truk, and other points in the Carolines and Marianas. The squadron began combat missions over Japan on 25 February 1945 with a firebombing mission over Northeast Tokyo. The squadron continued to participate in wide area firebombing attack, but the first ten-day blitz resulting in the Army Air Forces running out of incendiary bombs. Until then the squadron flew conventional strategic bombing missions using high explosive bombs.

The squadron continued attacking urban areas with incendiary raids until the end of the war in August 1945, attacking major Japanese cities, causing massive destruction of urbanized areas. Also conducted raids against strategic objectives, bombing aircraft factories, chemical plants, oil refineries, and other targets in Japan. The squadron flew its last combat missions on 14 August when hostilities ended. Afterwards, its B 29s carried relief supplies to Allied prisoner of war camps in Japan and Manchuria

Squadron remained in Western Pacific, although largely demobilized in the fall of 1945. Some aircraft scrapped on Tinian; others flown to storage depots in the United States. Inactivated as part of Army Service forces at the end of 1945.[2]

Air Defense Command

It provided early warning radar surveillance along the East Coast of the United States from, 1955-1969. It supported two deployed rotating aircraft with crews in Iceland to provide early detection of Soviet aircraft flying between Iceland and Greenland from, 1979-1992.[2]

Operations and decorations

Lineage

Activated on 15 Jan 1941
Inactivated on 1 Apr 1944
Inactivated on 27 Dec 1945
Activated on 8 Mar 1955
Inactivated on 31 Jul 1969
Activated on 1 Sep 1979
Re-designated 960th Airborne Warning and Control Squadron on 1 Jan 1982
Inactivated on 1 Jul 1992
Activated on 1 Mar 2001.[2]

Assignments

Stations

[2]

Aircraft

[2]

B-17 Flying Fortress
(1941–1942) 		B-25 Mitchell
(1941) 		B-24 Liberator
(1942–1944)
B-29 Superfortress
(1944–1945) 		RC/EC-121 Constellation
(1955–1969) 		E-3 Sentry
(1979–1992, since 2001)

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

  1. ↑ 552 OG Fact Sheet
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 AFHRA 960 AACS Page
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