350th Air Refueling Squadron

The 350th Air Refueling Squadron (350 ARS) is part of the 22d Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. It operates the KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft conducting air refueling missions.

Mission
To organize, train and equip to provide global mobility, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Organization and Training for Combat
The squadron was originally established as one of the original Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombardment squadrons of the 100th Bombardment Group in mid-1942 under Third Air Force but was immediately transferred to Second Air Force for training. It remained a paper unit until the initial cadre of the ground echelon (4 officers and 27 enlisted men) were assigned at Gowen Field, Idaho. Two days later the squadron departed for Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington for Phase I training. There the first aircrew arrived on 1 December 1942.

In February 1943 the ground echelon went to Kearney AAF, Nebraska, while the air echelon went to Ainsworth, Casper and Scottsbluff Army Air Fields where they acted as instructors training other units for the next three months. On 28 April, Colonel Alkire, the first group commander was relieved of duty. Two days later, the air echelon returned to Wendover Field, and would not be reunited with the ground echelon until arriving in England in June.

The ground echelon proceeded by rail to Camp Kilmer, then embarked on the RMS Queen Elizabeth, sailing on 27 May and arriving at Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, where they disembarked on 3 June. The flight echelon ferried their aircraft through Maine, Newfoundland, Labrador and Iceland to the United Kingsom.

Combat in the European Theater
The 350th engaged in strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Germany, sustaining very heavy losses of personnel and aircraft while conducting many unescorted missions over enemy territory attacking airfields, industries, naval facilities and transportation hubs. The squadron flew its first mission against Bremen, Germany on 25 June 1943. During the summer of 1944, aircrews bombed enemy positions at Saint-Lô, followed by similar campaigns at Brest in August and September. In October 1944, the squadron attacked enemy and ground defenses in the allied drive on the Siegfried Line, then bombed marshaling yards, German occupied villages, and communication targets in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. Attacked enemy targets in Germany during the spring of 1945, ending combat operations a strike on Berlin on 20 April 1945.

The squadron emained in Europe as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe occupation forces, dropping food to the people in the west of the Netherlands, and in June transported French Allied former prisoners of war from Austria to France. Demobilizing in England, in December 1945 the squadron inactivated as a paper unit.

Reserve Organization
The 350th activated in the Air Force Reserve in 1947 at Columbia AAB, South Carolina. It is unclear whether or not the unit was manned or equipped. It was inactivated in 1949 when Continental Air Command reorganized its reserve organization according to the Wing Base Organization.

Strategic Air Command
The squadron reactivated under Strategic Air Command received new, swept wing B-47 Stratojets in 1956 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 obsolete and vulnerable to new Soviet air defenses. The squadron began to send its Stratojets to The Military Aircraft Storage and Disposal Center at Davis-Monthan AFB for retirement in 1965, the last being retired in 1966, one of the last B-47 Squadrons.

Redesignated as a strategic reconnaissance squadron, operating AQM-34 Firebee strategic reconnaissance drones launched from DC-130 Hercules aircraft and recovered by CH-3 helicopters from, 1966–1976. Additionally, it provided refueling support for SR-71 aircraft from, 1983–1990. The 350th also provided cargo support and intratheater refueling during combat in Southwest Asia from, August 1990–March 1991.

Lineage

 * Constituted as the 350 Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 28 January 1942
 * Activated on 1 June 1942
 * Redesignated 350 Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 20 August 1943
 * Inactivated on 15 December 1945


 * Redesignated 350 Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 9 July 1947
 * Activated in the Reserve on 16 July 1947
 * Inactivated on 27 June 1949


 * Redesignated 350 Bombardment Squadron, Medium on 1 August 1955
 * Activated on 1 Jan 1956
 * Redesignated 350 Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron on 25 June 1966
 * Inactivated on 1 July 1976


 * Redesignated 350 Air Refueling Squadron, Heavy on 19 January 1982
 * Activated on 28 January 1982
 * Redesignated 350 Air Refueling Squadron on 1 September 1991

Assignments

 * 100th Bombardment Group: 1 June 1942 - 15 December 1945
 * 100th Bombardment Group: 16 July 1947 - 27 June 1949
 * 100th Bombardment (later, 100 Strategic Reconnaissance) Wing, 1 January 1956 -1 July 1976 (attached to Sixteenth Air Force, 4 March 1958 - 4 April 1958
 * 100th Air Refueling Wing, 28 January 1982
 * 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 15 March 1983
 * 9th Operations Group, 1 September 1991
 * 43d Operations Group, 1 Octpber 1993
 * 22d Operations Group, 1 July 1994 – Present

Stations

 * Orlando Army Air Base, Florida 1 June 1942
 * Barksdale Field, Louisiana, c. 18 June 1942
 * Pendleton Field, Oregon c. 26 June 1942
 * Gowen Field, Idaho, 28 August 1942
 * Walla Walla Army Air Base, Washington, c. 1 November 1942
 * Wendover Field, Utah, c. 30 November 1942
 * Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, c. 28 December 1942
 * Kearney AAF, Nebraska, c. 30 January 1943 – May 1943
 * RAF Thorpe Abbotts (USAAF Station 139), England, 9 June 1943 – December 1945
 * Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, c. 20 – 21 December 1945


 * Columbia Army Air Base, South Carolina, 16 July 1947 - 27 June 1949
 * Portsmouth (later, Pease) AFB, New Hampshire, 1 January 1956 – 30 April 1966 (deployed to RAF Brize Norton, England 4 January 1958 - 4 March 1958 and to Torrejon Air Base, Spain 4 March 1958 - 4 April 1958
 * Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, 25 June 1966 - 1 July 1976
 * Beale Air Force Base, California, 25 January 1982
 * McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, 1 July 1994 – Present

Aircraft and Missile

 * Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1945
 * North American AT-6 Texan, 1947–1949
 * Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator, 1947–1949
 * Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan, 1947–1949
 * Boeing B-47 Stratojet, 1956–1966
 * Lockheed DC-130 Hercules, 1966–1976
 * Sikorsky CH-3, 1966–1976
 * Ryan AQM-34 Firebee, 1966–1976
 * Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, 1982–Present