400th Missile Squadron


The 400th Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 90th Operations Group at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, where it was inactivated in 2005.
The squadron was first activated as the 10th Reconnaissance Squadron in 1942. Soon renamed the 400th Bombardment Squadron, it flew Consolidated B-24 Liberators in the Pacific during World War II, where it earned two Distinguished Unit Citations and a Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation for its actions in combat. After VJ Day, the squadron remained in the Philippines until January 1946, when it was inactivated.
The squadron was activated again in 1964 as the 400th Strategic Missile Squadron, an LGM-30B Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile squadron. In 1973 it modernized its Minutemen and in 1986 became the only operational squadron in the Air Force to equip with the LGM-118A Peacekeeper. The squadron was inactivated when the Peacekeeper was removed from the inventory in September 2005, during the implementation of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

History

World War II

The squadron was first organized as the 10th Reconnaissance Squadron at Key Field, Mississippi in April 1942 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator unit and one of the original squadrons of the 90th Bombardment Group. Within a week the squadron name was changed to the 400th Bombardment Squadron. The squadron trained with Liberators in the southeastern United States under III Bomber Command until August.
The squadron moved to Willow Run Airport, Michigan for conversion training on newly manufactured Ford Liberators. Assigned to VII Bomber Command with B-24Ds, the unit moved to Hickam Field, Hawaii in September. The squadron arrived in northern Queensland, Australia in November 1942 and began bombardment missions under V Bomber Command almost immediately.
The squadron attacked enemy airfields, troop concentrations, ground installations and shipping in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, Palau and the southern Philippines. The 400th was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for its operations in Papua between through January 1943. The unit participated in the Battle of Bismarck Sea in March 1943, and earned another citation for strikes on enemy airfields at Wewak, New Guinea in September 1943 despite heavy flak and fighter opposition.
During 1944, the 400th supported the New Guinea Campaign through the end of June, then made long-range raids on oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo, in September and October. In January 1945, the squadron moved to the Philippines and supported ground forces on Luzon, attacked industrial targets on Formosa, and bombed railways, airfields, and harbor facilities on the Asiatic mainland. Shortly before the end of the war in the Pacific, the 90th moved to Okinawa, from which it would be able to strike the Japanese home islands.
After VJ Day, the squadron flew reconnaissance missions over Japan and ferried Allied prisoners of war from Okinawa to Manila. It ceased operations by November 1945. The squadron was inactivated in the Philippines in early 1946.

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles

The squadron was reactivated on 1 July 1964 as an intercontinental ballistic missile squadron assigned to the 90th Strategic Missile Wing at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming, and equipped with fifty LGM-30B Minuteman Is, equipped with a single reentry vehicle. The squadron was the last of the 90th Wing's four Minuteman squadrons to activate. Beginning in June 1973, its Minuteman I missiles began to be replaced by LGM-30G Minuteman IIIs, which could carry up to three reentry vehicles, and it became the first Minuteman III squadron in the wing.
LGM-118 Peacekeeper personnel training and facility preparation began in June 1985. The Peacekeeper, which could carry ten independently targeted reentry vehicles, was fully operational with the squadron on 30 December 1986. The 400th was the only USAF missile squadron to put the Peacekeeper on alert and in 1999 was awarded the General Samuel C. Phillips Award as the best missile squadron in Air Force Space Command. In 2001 in compliance with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, these missiles were limited to a single reentry vehicle The Peacekeeper system continued in operation until 19 September 2005, when it was retired and the 400th Squadron inactivated at the start of the following month.

Lineage

. Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.
Campaign StreamerCampaignDatesNotes
GuadalcanalNovember 1942-21 February 1943400th Bombardment Squadron
PapuaNovember-23 January 1943400th Bombardment Squadron
Northern Solomons23 February 1943 – 21 November 1944400th Bombardment Squadron
Bismarck Archipelago15 December 1943 – 27 November 1944400th Bombardment Squadron
New Guinea24 January 1943 – 31 December 1944400th Bombardment Squadron
Leyte17 October 1944 – 1 July 1945400th Bombardment Squadron
Luzon15 December 1944 – 4 July 1945400th Bombardment Squadron
Southern Philippines27 February 1945 – 4 July 1945400th Bombardment Squadron
China DefensiveNovember 1942-4 May 1945400th Bombardment Squadron
China Offensive5 May 1945 – 2 September 1945400th Bombardment Squadron
Air Offensive, JapanNovember 1942-2 September 1945400th Bombardment Squadron
Western Pacific17 April 1944 – 2 September 1945400th Bombardment Squadron

Citations