357th Airlift Squadron

Heavy bomber training unit

The squadron was first activated as the 357th Bombardment Squadron at Geiger Field, Washington in June 1942 as one of the four squadrons of the 302d Bombardment Group.^[1][4][5] The squadron made a number of moves during the year before becoming an Operational Training Unit (OTU) in early 1943.^[1] The OTU program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to “satellite groups "^[6] The OTU program was patterned after the unit training system of the Royal Air Force. OTUs assumed responsibility for satellite unit 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 the end of the year most combat 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 became a Replacement Training Unit. Replacement training units were also oversized units, but trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters.^[6] However, the Army Air Forces also found that standard military units like the 355th, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were not well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit,^[11] while the groups and squadrons acting as RTUs were disbanded or inactivated.^[12] This resulted in the squadron, along with other elements of the 302d Group at Chatham Army Air Field, Georgia, being inactivated in the spring of 1944^[1][4] and being replaced by the 114th AAF Base Unit (Bombardment (Heavy)), which assumed the group's mission, personnel, and equipment

Combat in the Pacific

In July 1944, the squadron was reactivated at Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas, where it was assigned to the 331st Bombardment Group.^[1][13] At Dalhart, the squadron built up to full strength, moving to Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska, in November 1944 where it was fully manned and equipped and aircrews began to arrive.^[14] Although nominally a very heavy bomber unit, the squadron flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses throughout 1944.^[1] In September, key squadron personnel trained at the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics, in Florida. Training with B-29 Superfortresses began in December 1944.^[15] Winter weather in the Midwest resulted in a notable decrease in flying training hours flown. As a result, the 315th Bombardment Wing implemented a training program, called the "Gypsy Task Force" in which its units would deploy to bases in the Caribbean to take advantage of the better flying weather there.^[16] The squadron flew training missions from Vernam Field, Jamaica in this program.^[17]

The squadron's B-29s were stripped of most defensive guns and the central fire control system to increase speed and bomb load, The tail gun was aimed and fired using the new AN/APG-15B radar fire control system for its tail guns that detected the approaching enemy plane and made all the necessary calculations. In addition, their bombing radars were upgraded to the AN/APQ-7. The weight reduction from this modification also permitted a larger bomb load on the squadron's bombers.^[18]

The squadron left McCook for deployment to the Pacific in April 1945.^[1] The ground echelon left for the Port of Embarkation at Seattle on 7 April and boarded the SS Cape Newenham,^[19] sailing on the 12th. It arrived at Northwest Field, Guam on 12 May,^[1] although the air echelon, staging from Mather Field, California only arrived in late June.^[14]

The squadron entered combat in June, with a bombing raid against an airfield on Truk. It flew its first mission against the Japanese home islands on 9 July and afterwards operated principally against the enemy's petroleum industry on Honshu. It attacked the coal liquification plant at Ube, the Mitsubishi-Hayama petroleum complex at Kawasaki,^[d] and the oil refinery and storage facility at Shimotsu. For pressing these attacks despite bad weather, and heavy fighter and flak defenses, the squadron was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation^[13] The squadron flew its final mission on the night of 14/15 August 1945.^[20]

Following V-J Day, the squadron flew supply drop missions to prisoner of war camps in Japan^[13] and Mongolia.^[21] On 2 September, it participated in a show of force over Tokyo during the surrender ceremony. Personnel began rotating back to the United States in November 1945, when the 331st Group's strength was reduced from 50 to 39 Superfortresses and crews began ferrying surplus bombers back to the United States. The squadron was reduced to a paper unit on 15 February 1945, with its remaining personnel and planes being transferred to the 501st Bombardment Group.^[22] It was inactivated on Guam on 15 April 1946.^[1]

Initial troop carrier operations

The squadron was redesignated the 357th Troop Carrier Squadron and activated in the reserve at Clinton County Air Force Base, Ohio in June 1952.^[1] The reserve mobilization for the Korean War, however, had left the reserve without aircraft, and the unit did not receive aircraft until July,^[23] when it began to receive Curtiss C-46 Commandos.^[24] In the summer of 1956, the squadron participated in Operation Sixteen Ton during its two weeks of active duty training. Sixteen Ton was performed entirely by reserve troop carrier units and moved United States Coast Guard equipment From Floyd Bennett Naval Air Station to Isla Grande Airport in Puerto Rico and San Salvador in the Bahamas. After the success of Operation Sixteen Ton, the squadron began to use inactive duty training periods for Operation Swift Lift, transporting high priority cargo for the Air Force and Operation Ready Swap, transporting aircraft engines, between Air Materiel Command’s depots.^[25] In addition, the squadron flew occasional airlift missions overseas.^[24]

During the mid-1950s, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were pressuring the Air Force to provide more wartime airlift. At the same time, about 150 Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars became available from the active force.^[26] During 1956, the squadron traded its Commandos for the newer Flying Boxcars.^[24]

Starting in 1955, the Air Force began detaching reserve squadrons from their parent wing locations to separate sites. The concept offered several advantages: communities were more likely to accept the smaller squadrons than the large wings and the location of separate squadrons in smaller population centers would facilitate recruiting and manning.^[27] Under this concept, the number of reserve squadrons at Clinton County was reduced, and in November 1957, the squadron moved to Donaldson Air Force Base, South Carolina, where it absorbed the personnel and equipment of the 706th Troop Carrier Squadron^[28] and was assigned to the 445th Troop Carrier Group. This alignment lasted only a few months, as the squadron transferred its personnel and equipment to the 77th Troop Carrier Squadron,^[29] and moved on paper to New Orleans Naval Air Station, Louisiana, where it was assigned to the 446th Troop Carrier Group.^[1][e] The following year, Continental Air Command adopted the dual deputy organization. The 446th Troop Carrier Group was inactivated, and the squadron was assigned directly to the 446th Troop Carrier Wing.^[1][30]

The squadron moved to Bates Field, Alabama, where it took over the C-119s and personnel of the 78th Troop Carrier Squadron, having left its personnel and assigned C-119s at New Orleans for the 706th Troop Carrier Squadron, which was activated in its place.^[1][28][31] This move included a reassignment to the 302d Troop Carrier Wing.^[24]

Mobilization and formation of group

Although mobilization of an entire reserve wing was not a problem, mobilizing a single flying squadron and elements to support it proved difficult. This weakness was demonstrated in the partial mobilization of reserve units during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.^[32] To resolve this problem, at the start of 1962, Continental Air Command determined to reorganize its reserve wings by establishing groups with support elements for each of its troop carrier squadrons. This reorganization would facilitate mobilization of elements of wings in various combinations when needed.^[32]

In the fall of 1962, the squadron was called to active duty for the Cuban Missile Crisis, although it was released on 22 November 1962,^[24] the Cuban mobilization delayed the formation of the planned groups.^[32] On 11 February 1963, the squadron was assigned to the 908th Troop Carrier Group, which included a combat support squadron, a materiel squadron and a medical unit. By the mid-1960s, squadron aircraft and crews performed worldwide airlift missions and participated in numerous tactical exercises.^[1][24] In 1964, the squadron moved across town from the civilian Bates Field to Brookley Air Force Base, Alabama.^[1] Although its mission did not change, the squadron was redesignated the 357th Tactical Airlift Squadron in July 1967.^[1]

Tactical air support

In July 1969, the Air Force closed Brookley.^[33] After drawing down its presence there, the squadron moved to Maxwell Air Force Base, where it became the 357th Tactical Air Support Squadron, on 25 April 1969. Initially, the Air Force lacked enough forward air control capable aircraft to equip reserve units in the US, so the squadron operated Cessna U-3 Blue Canoes. In 1970, the squadron received Cessna O-2 Skymasters.^[1]

Return to airlift operations

In December 1971, the squadron once again became the 357th Tactical Airlift Squadron and received de Havilland Canada C-7 Caribous. The squadron was one of two reserve squadrons to fy the C-7. The squadron continued to fly the aircraft until 1993, and was the last reserve unit to fly the plane.^[34]

In February 1992, as the Air Force dropped the distinction between "strategic" and "tactical" units, the squadron became the 357th Airlift Squadron, In August, Air Force Reserve Command implemented the objective wing organization and the squadron was reassigned to the new 908th Operations Group.^[1] During 1993, the squadron exchanged their Caribous for C-130 Hercules'.^[1] It operated Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft, providing airlift and related services through the efforts of more than 1,200 reservists and eight C-130 Hercules aircraft. Unit reservists flew approximately 1 million miles annually, engaging in training operations and supporting real-world missions.^[35]

In November 2020 the United States Air Force announced that the Boeing MH-139A Grey Wolf Formal Training Unit would be located at Maxwell and that the C-130H aircraft of the 357th would be retired. On 20 July 2024, the squadron was inactivated, and the 703d Helicopter Squadron was activated as the 908th Wing's flying unit.^[36]