366th Bombardment Squadron

366th Bombardment Squadron
	Emblem of the 366th Bombardment Squadron
Active	1942–1946; 1947–1948; 1951–1970
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Bombardment

The 366th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was as part of the 305th Bombardment Wing, stationed at Grissom Air Force Base, Indiana.

World War II squadron emblem

It was inactivated on 1 January 1970.

History

Established in June 1942 as a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombardment squadron, the squadron trained under the Second Air Force; it deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in September 1942, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England. It began flying long-range strategic bombardment missions on 17 November 1942 and attacked such targets as submarine pens, docks, harbours, shipyards, motor works and marshalling yards in France, Germany and the Low Countries. It continued attacks on enemy cities, manufacturing centers, transportation links and other targets until the German capitulation in May 1945.

After combat missions ended, the squadron moved to St Trond Air Base in Belgium in July 1945 where it conducted photo-mapping and intelligence-gathering flights called Project 'Casey Jones' over Europe and North Africa. On 15 December 1945, it moved to Lechfeld Airfield, Germany which it had bombed on 18 March 1944 and now used as an occupation base. The squadron was inactivated on December 1946 in Germany.

The squadron was reactivated under Strategic Air Command (SAC) in 1951 with B-47A (later B) Stratojet medium jet bombers. It began flying operational strategic bombardment and refueling missions from MacDill AFB, Florida. In 1955, SAC upgraded the squadron to the B-47E, the major production version of the Stratojet. The squadron, still with B-47s, was reassigned to Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana in May 1959. In September 1960, it upgraded to the B-58 Hustler supersonic medium bomber and was declared operationally ready in August 1962.

It began phasing down B-58 operations in 1969, and was inactivated in January 1970.

Lineage

Constituted 366th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 28 June 1942

Activated on 1 March 1942

Inactivated on 25 December 1946

Redesignated 366th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy) on 11 June 1947

Activated on 1 July 1947

Inactivated on 6 September 1948

Redesignated 366th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 20 December 1950

Activated on 2 January 1951

Inactivated on 1 January 1970

Assignments

305th Bombardment Group, 1 March 1942 – 25 December 1946; 1 Jul 1947 – 6 Sep 1948; 2 January 1951
305th Bombardment Wing, 16 June 1952 – 1 January 1970

Stations

Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah, 1 March 1942
Geiger Field, Washington, 11 June 1942
Muroc Army Air Field, California, 4 July 1942
Fort Dix Army Air Base, New Jersey, 29 August-4 September 1942
RAF Grafton Underwood (AAF-106), England, 13 September 1942
RAF Chelveston (AAF-105), England, 11 December 1942

Sint-Truiden Airfield (ALG A-92), Belgium, 25 July 1945
AAF Station Lechfeld (ALG R-71), Germany, 19 December 1945 – 25 December 1946
Andrews Field (later, AFB), Maryland, 1 July 1947 – 6 September 1948
MacDill AFB, Florida, 2 January 1951
Bunker Hill AFB, Indiana, 1 June 1959 – 1 January 1970

Aircraft

B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1946
B-18 Bolo, 1942
B-24 Liberator, 1942
B-29 Superfortress, 1951
B-47 Stratojet, 1952–1960
B-58 Hustler, 1960–1970

gollark: Telling people that they should support some sort of equality thing because, in a thought experiment, they would be randomly assigned whatever attributes, does not seem like it would work.

gollark: Given that people already exist who are *not* in some randomly assigned position, I don't see how you can use the veil of ignorance thing for much beyond just evaluating some details about how good a society is.

gollark: 🐝 ❕

gollark: Bee you.

gollark: I disagree somewhat with your disagreement. The memes you see have been filtered through a lot of people and websites before reaching you and ones which weren't sufficiently memey weeded out. Popular memes provide some insight into what people like.

References

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

Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.