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41st Air Refueling Squadron Shield Strategic Air Command
41st Air Refueling Squadron - SAC - Emblem
Emblem of the 41st Air Refueling Squadron
Active 1958-1993
Country United States
Branch United States Air Force
Type Air Refueling

The 41st Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 380th Operations Group, stationed at Griffiss AFB, New York. It was inactivated on 15 February 1993.

History[]

World War II[]

41st Bombardment Squadron - Emblem

41st Bombardment Squadron emblem

Activated 1 April 1944 at Dalhart Army Airfield, Texas. Initially equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses for training, due to shortage of B-29 Superfortresses. Moved to Harvard Army Airfield, Nebraska, in August 1944 and equipped with B-29B limited production aircraft. After completion of training deployed to Central Pacific Area (CPA), assigned to XXI Bomber Command, Northwest Field (Guam) for operational missions. B-29Bs were standard production aircraft stripped of most defensive guns to increase speed and bomb load, The tail gun was aimed and fired automatically by the new AN/APG-15B radar fire control system that detected the approaching enemy plane and made all the necessary calculations. Mission of the squadron was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands. Dntered combat on 16 June 1945 with a bombing raid against an airfield on Moen. Flew first mission against the Japanese home islands on 26 June 1945 and afterwards operated principally against the enemy's petroleum industry. Flew primarily low-level, fast attacks at night using a mixture of high-explosive and incendary bombs to attack targets.

Flew last combat mission on 15 August 1945, later flew in "Show of Force" mission on 2 September 1945 over Tokyo Bay during formal Japanese Surrender. Inactivated on Guam 15 April 1946, personnel returned to the United States and aircraft sent to storage in Southwest United States.

Air Force Reserve[]

Allotted to the Air Force Reserve as a Tactical Air Command B-26 Invader light bomb group in 1947. Inactivated in 1949 due to budget restrictions.

Cold War[]

Stationed at Griffiss AFB, the squadron provided air refueling to Strategic Air Command and other tactical aircraft using KC-135 Stratotankers (1966-1976) on a worldwide scale.

Lineage[]

41st Bombardment Squadron

  • Constituted as the 41st Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 28 March 1944
Activated on 1 April 1944
Inactivated on 10 May 1944
  • Activated on 1 June 1944
Inactivated on 10 June 1946
  • Activated in the reserve on 12 July 1947
Inactivated on 27 June 1949
  • Consolidated on 19 September 1985 with the 41st Air Refueling Squadron as the 41st Air Refueling Squadron

41st Air Refueling Squadron

  • Constituted as the 41st Air Refueling Squadron, Heavy in 1958
Activated on 5 January 1959
  • Consolidated on 19 September 1985 with the 41st Bombardment Squadron
Inactivated on 15 February 1993

Assignments[]

Stations[]

Aircraft[]

References[]

Notes[]

Bibliography[]

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

External links[]


PD-icon This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Air Force website http://www.af.mil.

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at 41st Air Refueling Squadron and the edit history here.
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