510th Missile Squadron

The squadron was first activated as the 510th Bombardment Squadron at Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah on 1 October 1942 and was one of the four original squadrons of the 351st Bombardment Group. Its cadre moved the same day to Gowen Field, Idaho, where it could begin manning as a heavy bomber unit. The squadron moved to Geiger Field, Washington in November and began training for combat with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.[1][3] The squadron completed its training in April 1943 and departed for the European Theater of Operations.[1][4] The air echelon began ferrying its B-17s about 1 April, while the ground echelon left for the New York Port of Embarkation on 12 April.[3]

510th Squadron B-17G Flying Fortress[note 1]

The ground and air echelons had arrived at the unit's combat station, RAF Polebrook, England by 12 May 1943, and the squadron flew its first mission on 14 May. The squadron primarily flew strategic bombing missions against Germany. It struck targets including ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt; bridges near Köln; oil refineries at Hamburg; communications targets near Mayen; marshalling yards at Koblenz and industrial targets at Berlin, Hannover, and Mannheim. Other targets in France Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway included airfields, harbor installations, and submarine pens.[4]

On 9 October 1943, the squadron attacked the Arado Flugzeugwerke aircraft factory Anklam, Germany. Despite heavy flak and attacks by enemy fighters, accurate bombing inflicted heavy damage on the target. The squadron was awarded its first Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for this action. On 11 January 1944, as Operation Pointblank continued, it attacked the heavily defended Focke-Wulf Fw 190 production facility at Oschersleben, without fighter escort and in the face of the strongest fighter opposition encountered for five months, for which it earned a second DUC. It continued attacks on German aircraft production during Big Week, the concentrated attack by VIII Bomber Command against the German aircraft industry in late February.[4][5]

The squadron was occasionally withdrawn from strategic missions to provide air support and interdiction. In the buildup to Operation Overlord, the invasion at Normandy, the squadron participated in Operation Crossbow, attacking V-1 flying bomb and V-2 rocket launch sites. In June 1944, it provided support for the landings, and the following month supported Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo. In September, it supported Operation Market Garden, an unsuccessful airborne attack attempting to obtain a bridgehead across the Rhine at Arnhem. From December 1944 through January 1945, it attacked front line positions during the Battle of the Bulge. In March 1945, it flew missions to support Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine in Germany.[4]

Following V-E Day, the squadron left England, with the first plane being flown back by its crew departing on 21 May 1945. The ground echelon sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth in June 1945. It briefly assembled at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota, and was inactivated there on 28 August 1945.[1][3]

Two members of the squadron, Second Lieutenant Walter E. Truemper and Sergeant Archibald Mathies, were awarded the Medal of Honor. During the Big Week attacks, on 20 February 1944, their B-17 received a direct hit by a cannon shell that exploded in the cockpit and killed the copilot and severely wounded the pilot, rendering him unconscious. The plane's bombardier, assuming the plane was out of control and doomed, immediately bailed out. Carl Moore, the top turret gunner and flight engineer, made his way forward and leaned over the pilots' bodies to control the plane and pull it out of a nosedive. He later received the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions. Moore, Truemper, the Navigator, and Mathies, the Ball Turret Gunner, took turns flying the plane as crewmembers removed the pilots. Despite the freezing cold winds blowing through the damaged cockpit, they managed to fly the plane back to England. There, they held the plane steady, while the rest of the crew bailed out over friendly territory. The wounded pilot, however, could not parachute from the damaged Flying Fortress, so Truemper and Mathies decided to try to land the plane despite orders to bail out and save themselves. On their third landing attempt, the plane crashed and they were killed.[4][6] The crew received two Medals of Honor, one Distinguished Service Cross, one Silver Star, and seven Purple Hearts, which made them the most decorated B-17 crew of the 8th Air Force in World War Two.

The squadron was activated again in September 1947 in the reserves and trained at Wold Chamberlain Field under the supervision of Air Defense Command (ADC)'s 137th AAF Base Unit (later the 2465th Air Force Reserve Training Center), although its headquarters, the 351st Bombardment Group, was stationed at Scott Field, Illinois.[7][4] The following year Continental Air Command assumed responsibility for managing reserve units from ADC,[8] and the squadron was reassigned to the 381st Bombardment Group at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.[1][9]

Although nominally a very heavy bomber unit, it is not clear whether or not the squadron was fully staffed or equipped.[10] President Truman's reduced 1949 defense budget required reductions in the number of units in the Air Force,[11] and the 510th was inactivated[1] and most of its personnel transferred to elements of the 440th Troop Carrier Wing at Wold Chamberlain.[12]

The squadron was redesignated the 510th Strategic Missile Squadron in 1962[1] and organized at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri in July 1963 as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) intercontinental ballistic missile squadron, assigned to the 351st Strategic Missile Wing. The wing's first LGM-30B Minuteman I, however did not arrive for emplacement in its silo until 14 January 1964. The squadron became combat ready on 28 June 1964,[13] and began standing alert with a complement of 50 missiles.

LGM-30 Minuteman Missile Alert and Launch Facilities

510th Missile Squadron Launch Facilities (K-O flights, each controlling 10 missiles) were located as follows:[14]

F-01 6.0 mi SW of Windsor, MO 38°48′00″N 093°43′33″W

I-01 7.3 mi N of Clinton, MO 38°28′49″N 093°44′57″W

M-01 32.6 mi NE of Holden, MO 38°43′30″N 093°56′40″W

N-01 3.9 mi SE of Odessa, MO 38°58′14″N 093°53′32″W

O-01 on Whiteman AFB, MO[note 2] 38°43′14″N 093°33′56″W

Beginning in May 1966, the squadron began an upgrade to LGM-30F Minuteman II missiles. The conversion to the newer model of the Minuteman was completed in October 1967.[13] The new missile had greater range and accuracy, along with the ability to employ penetration aids to reduce the effectiveness of anti-ballistic missile defenses and also had more resistance to nuclear blasts.[15] Concurrent with the change to the Minuteman II, the squadron assumed the Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS) mission, with the first missile dedicated to this mission going on alert on 10 October 1967.[16] ERCS made sure that national and military leaders could send pre-recorded attack orders to SAC bombers and missiles if land-based and airborne command and control systems were destroyed. Each ERCS missile had two UHF transmitters and was to be launched at a very high trajectory to send nuclear orders or "go codes" to bombers in flight and ground-based nuclear forces in its line of sight for up to 30 minutes. Ultimately, twelve of the squadron's silos contained missiles with ERCS transmitters aboard.[17]

In September 1991, the squadron was renamed the 510th Missile Squadron as the Air Force removed the distinction between "tactical" and "strategic" in unit names prior to the combination of SAC and Tactical Air Command into a single Air Combat Command. In the 1990s, President Bush's decided to stand down Minuteman II units. Shutdown of ERCS began in November 1991,[18] and the squadron was inactivated on 15 November 1993.

• 351st Bombardment Group, 1 October 1942 – 28 August 1945
• 351st Bombardment Group, 15 October 1947
• 381st Bombardment Group, 3 May 1948 – 27 June 1949
• Strategic Air Command, 15 November 1962 (not organized)[19]
• 351st Strategic Missile Wing, 1 July 1963[20]
• 351st Operations Group, 1 September 1991 – 15 November 1993

• Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1945[1]
• LGM-30B Minuteman I, 1963–1967[13]
• LGM-30F Minuteman II, 1966–1995[13]

Explanatory notes

Citations

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

• Anderson, Capt. Barry (1985). Army Air Forces Stations: A Guide to the Stations Where U.S. Army Air Forces Personnel Served in the United Kingdom During World War II (PDF). Maxwell AFB, AL: Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 January 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
• Freeman, Roger A. (1970). The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (A History of the US 8th Army Air Force). London, England, UK: Macdonald and Company. ISBN 978-0-87938-638-2.
• Knaack, Marcelle Size (1978). Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems (PDF). Vol. 2, Post-World War II Bombers 1945-1973. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-59-5. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979.
• 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.
• 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. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Watkins, Robert (2008). Battle Colors: Insignia and Markings of the Eighth Air Force In World War II. Vol. I (VIII) Bomber Command. Atglen, PA: Shiffer Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7643-1987-7.
• "AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits" (PDF). Washington, DC: Department of the Air Force. 15 June 1971. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
• "AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits, Vol II" (PDF). Washington, DC: Department of the Air Force. 30 September 1976. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
• "AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits, Vol III" (PDF). Washington, DC: Department of the Air Force. 20 September 1984. Retrieved 11 August 2016. (renumbered AF Pamphlet 36-2801)