544th Bombardment Squadron

The 544th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the 384th Bombardment Wing, stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas. It was inactivated on 1 September 1964.

History
Established as a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber squadron; trained under Second Air Force. Deployed to European Theater of Operations (ETO), assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England, Flew combat missions over Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe until the German capitulation in May 1945.

Reassigned to Air Transport Command and used B-17s as transports for demobilized personnel. Flew transport routes to French Morocco and Azores; returning to Istes France. Squadron inactivated in France during February 1946.

Activated as a B-29 Superfortress squadron in the reserves, 1947. Not manned or equipped, inactivated in 1949 due to budget reductions.

Reactivated in August 1955 as a Strategic Air Command B-47 Stratojet  squadron which were designed to carry nuclear weapons and to penetrate Soviet air defenses with its high operational ceiling and near supersonic speed. The squadron flew the B-47 for about a decade when by the mid-1960s it had become obsolescent and vulnerable to new Soviet air defenses. Inactivated with the phaseout of the B-47; sending aircraft to storage at Davis-Monthan in the late summer of 1964 and the squadron was inactivated.

Lineage

 * Constituted 544th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 25 November 1942
 * Activated on 1 December 1942
 * Inactivated on 28 February 1946


 * Redesignated 544th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy) on 9 July 1947
 * Activated in the reserve on 16 July 1947
 * Inactivated on 27 June 1949


 * Redesignated 544th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 3 June 1955
 * Activated on 1 August 1955
 * Discontinued, and inactivated on 1 September 1964

Assignments

 * 384th Bombardment Group, 1 December 1942-28 February 1946
 * 96th Bombardment Group, 16 July 1947-27 June 1949
 * 384th Bombardment Wing, 1 August 1955-1 September 1964

Stations

 * Gowen Field, Idaho, 1 December 1942
 * Wendover Field, Utah, 2 January 1943
 * Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, 5 April-10 May 1943
 * RAF Grafton Underwood (AAF-106), England, 4 June 1943
 * Istres Air Base, France, 1 July 1945-28 February 1946
 * Nashville Municipal Airport, Tennessee, 16 July 1947-27 June 1949
 * Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, 1 August 1955-1 September 1964

Aircraft

 * B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1946
 * B-47 Stratojet, 1955–1964