744th Bombardment Squadron

The 744th Bombardment Squadron was first activated at Wendover Field, Utah on 1 June 1943, where it was one of the four original squadrons of the 456th Bombardment Group and received its initial cadre. Shortly thereafter the squadron moved to Gowen Field, Idaho and began to train with Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers. It completed its training in December 1943 and began its movement to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.[2][3]

15th Air Force B-24 Liberator attacking a target

The squadron arrived in theater at Cerignola Airfield on 11 January 1944 and later that month moved to its combat station of Stornara Airfield, Italy.[2] The squadron began combat operations the following month, primarily engaging in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Its early operations were conducted against airfields, aircraft factories, and railroad bridges in Italy, Austria and Romania. On 10 May 1944, the squadron was targeted against a manufacturing center at Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Adverse weather caused most of the attacking force to turn back before reaching the target. The 744th and the rest of the 456th Group proceeded to attack the target despite heavy interceptor opposition that was able to concentrate on defending against the group's Liberators. Its actions in this operation earned the squadron its first Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC).[3]

The squadron expanded its operations to include attacks on locomotive manufacturing plants, oil refineries, oil storage facilities and viaducts in France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Balkan peninsula. On 2 July 1944, the squadron braved severe enemy fighter attacks while bombing oil facilities at Budapest, Hungary, for which it was awarded a second DUC.[3]

The squadron was occasionally diverted from its strategic mission to carry out air support and air interdiction missions. From July through August 1944, it helped prepare the way for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. In the spring of 1945, it supported Operation Grapeshot, the offensive by the United States Fifth Army and British Eighth Army against remaining German forces in northern Italy.[3]

Following V-E Day, the squadron airlifted supplies to airfields in northern Italy. It returned to the United States in July and began to reorganize as a very heavy bomber unit. However, with the surrender of Japan, the squadron was inactivated on 17 October 1945.[2][3]

The squadron was reactivated as a reserve unit under Air Defense Command (ADC) at McChord Field, Washington in July 1947, where its training was supervised by ADC's 406th AAF Base Unit (later the 2345th Air Force Reserve Training Center).[4] It was nominally a very heavy bomber unit, but the squadron does not appear to have been fully manned or equipped with operational aircraft while a reserve unit.[5] In 1948 Continental Air Command (ConAC) assumed responsibility for managing reserve and Air National Guard units from ADC.[6] President Truman’s reduced 1949 defense budget required reductions in the number of units in the Air Force.[7] ConAC also reorganized its reserve units under the wing base organization system in June 1949. As a result, the squadron was inactivated and its personnel and equipment were transferred to elements of the 302d Troop Carrier Wing, which was activated simultaneously.[2][8]

C-119 Flying Boxcars from the 456th Troop Carrier Group deployed to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, October 1954

The squadron was redesignated the 744th Troop Carrier Squadron and activated at Miami International Airport, Florida, where it replaced the 76th Troop Carrier Squadron, a reserve unit that had been mobilized for the Korean War and which was returning to reserve status.[2][9] The squadron and its Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars moved to Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina in August 1953. It participated in numerous military exercises in the United States and overseas, primarily with airborne forces of the United States Army.[10]

In March 1955, the 456th Troop Carrier Wing reorganized, and the squadron was assigned directly to wing headquarters as the 456th Group and all wing support organizations were inactivated, while the squadron formed a detachment with eight C-119L aircraft. In October, the squadron moved with the wing to Shiroi Air Base, Japan, but the flying detachments of the wing were located at various points between Okinawa and Alaska. The squadron took part in Project Drag Net, recovering instrument packages from high altitude research or reconnaissance balloons.[lower-alpha 2] The project was terminated in May 1956 due to its low success rate, although the squadron earned an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its participation. The squadron returned to the United States and Ardmore Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where it was inactivated in July 1956 and its assets transferred to the 339th Troop Carrier Squadron.[2][10]

In 1962, in order to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records, Strategic Air Command (SAC) received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its Major Command controlled strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate Air Force controlled units, which could carry a lineage and history.[lower-alpha 3] As a result, the 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing replaced the 4126th Strategic Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California. As part of this organizational action, the squadron again became the 744th Bombardment Squadron and took over the mission, personnel and equipment of the 31st Bombardment Squadron, which was simultaneously inactivated.[2][10][11]

One half of the squadron's Boeing B-52G Stratofortress aircraft were maintained on fifteen minute alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike.[12] The squadron continued the mission of strategic bombardment training. It frequently deployed aircraft and crews to meet USAF requirements, often having nearly all of the squadron's resources scattered around the world at various operating locations.[10] The squadron was inactivated on 30 September 1975, and its mission, equipment and personnel were transferred to the 34th Bombardment Squadron, which moved on paper to Beale from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.[2][13]

In June 2002, the squadron was redesignated the 744th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, converted to provisional status and assigned to Air Mobility Command. It has not been active under its most recent designation.[14]

• 456th Bombardment Group, 1 June 1943 – 17 October 1945
• 456th Bombardment Group, 12 July 1947 – 27 June 1949
• 456th Troop Carrier Group, 1 December 1952
• 456th Troop Carrier Wing, 1 March 1955 – 9 July 1956
• Strategic Air Command, 15 November 1962 (not organized)
• 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing (later 456th Bombardment Wing), 1 February 1963 – 30 September 1975[15][10]
• Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed[14]

• Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 1943–1945
• Boeing B-29 Superfortress, 1945
• Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, 1952–1956
• Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, 1963–1975[15]

Explanatory notes

Citations

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

• 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. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• 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 A. (2009). Insignia and Aircraft Markings of the U.S. Army Air Force In World War II. Vol. IV, European-African-Middle Eastern Theater of Operations. Atglen,PA: Shiffer Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7643-3401-6.

Further reading

• Cantwell, Gerald T. (1997). Citizen Airmen: a History of the Air Force Reserve, 1946-1994. Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program. ISBN 0-16049-269-6. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
• Mulcahy, Robert (1 October 2003). "Corona Program Oral History (No. 6): Interview with Lt Col Harold E. Mitchell" (PDF). Space and Missile Systems Center History Office. Retrieved 9 May 2019. (experiences with Project Drag Net)
• Anonymous (1997) [1945]. 456th Bomb Group - Steed's Flying Colts (Turner Limited ed.). Turner Publications. ISBN 978-1563111419.