773d Airlift Squadron


The 773d Airlift Squadron called itself the "Fleagles" and was most recently assigned to the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio. The unit flew the Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft.
The squadron was first activated as the 773d Bombardment Squadron during World War II. After training in the United States with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, earning two Distinguished Unit Citations before inactivating in Italy.
The squadron was redesignated the 773d Troop Carrier Squadron and activated in January 1953, when it assumed the mission, personnel and aircraft of a reserve unit that had been called to active duty for the Korean War and was being released from active duty. The squadron provided airlift for a number of contingency operations, and in 1968, moved to the Philippines, from which its crews and planes rotated to Vietnam to provide airlift support during the Vietnam War. The squadron was reactivated in the United States, where it continued airlift operations until inactivating in 1993. It was reactivated in the reserve in 1995.

History

World War II

Training in the United States

The squadron was first activated as the 773d Bombardment Squadron at Geiger Field, Washington on 1 August 1943 as one of the four original squadrons of the 463d Bombardment Group. The 773d moved to Rapid City Army Air Base, South Dakota, where it received its initial cadre. On 1 September, the key personnel of the squadron and 463d Group moved to Orlando Army Air Base, where they participated in advanced tactical training with the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics. A model crew from the squadron moved to Montbrook Army Air Field to participate in simulated missions with a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The cadre returned to Rapid City at the end of the month, where the ground echelon of the squadron was filled out and ground school begun.
The squadron moved to MacDill Field, Florida in November and began flight training with the Flying Fortress, although its air echelon was not fully manned until early December. on 2 February, the squadron's ground echelon departed Florida for the Port of Embarkation at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia for shipment to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, while the air echelon ferried their B-17s via the southern ferry route.

Combat in the Mediterranean Theater

The squadron arrived in Italy in March 1944 and flew its first combat mission from Celone Airfield on 30 March against an airfield at Imotski, Yugoslavia. It engaged primarily in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It attacked targets like marshalling yards, oil refineries and aircraft factories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia. The squadron was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission against oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania on 18 May 1944. Clouds that obscured the target resulted in Fifteenth Air Force recalling the mission, but the squadron and the rest of the 463d Group did not receive the recall message and was the only unit to continue on, causing major destruction to the target. Although crippled by intense fighter attacks, they also inflicted severe damage on the opposing air defenses. On 24 May 1945, the 463d Group led the 5th Bombardment Wing in an attack against a Daimler-Benz tank factory at Berlin, Germany. The squadron made a successful attack despite three separate attacks by enemy air defenses, including attacks by German jet fighters. This action earned the squadron its second DUC.
The squadron was occasionally diverted from its strategic mission to perform air support and air interdiction missions. In May and June 1944, it bombed bridges to support the campaign for the liberation of Rome. In August 1944, it struck bridges, gun positions and other targets to support Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. It hit military airbases, bridges and other tactical targets to support partisan forces and the Red Army advance in the Balkans. During the last months of the war, the squadron operated primarily to support Operation Grapeshot, the spring 1945 offensive in Northern Italy.
The squadron flew its final combat mission on 26 April 1945. After V-E Day the squadron transported personnel from Italy to Casablanca for return to the United States. By early September, the unit had been substantially reduced by transfers to other units and returns of personnel to the United States and it was inactivated in Italy with the end of Project Green in September 1945.

Airlift operations

Activation and move to Ardmore

The squadron was redesignated the 773d Troop Carrier Squadron and activated at Memphis Municipal Airport, Tennessee 0n 16 January 1953. At Memphis, it absorbed the mission, personnel and Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 346th Troop Carrier Squadron, a reserve unit that had been mobilized for the Korean War and was being returned to the reserves. In August, the squadron departed the civilian airfield at Memphis for the newly reopened Ardmore Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
The squadron airlifted equipment and supplies and supported Army airborne exercises. The squadron became one of the first to equip with the new Lockheed C-130A Hercules in 1956. In September 1957, Tactical Air Command converted the 463d Wing to the dual deputy system. The 463d Group was inactivated, and the squadron was assigned directly to the 463d Troop Carrier Wing.
In July 1958, president Camille Chamoun of Lebanon was facing an insurgency against his government and requested military assistance from the United States, which implemented Operation Blue Bat. The squadron, along with other elements of the 463d Wing, flew command elements of Nineteenth Air Force and other personnel and equipment of the Composite Air Strike Force to locations in the Middle East. The following month, the squadron provided airlift for the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis.

Operations from Sewart and Langley

Although Ardmore had only been open for six years, the Air Force decided to close the base again. The inactivation of the 513th Troop Carrier Wing, a Fairchild C-123 Provider unit at Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee, provided room for the 773d and the other operational units of the 463d Wing to move there. The squadron moved to Sewart in November 1958, and soon began replacing its C-130As with C-130B models. While at Sewart, the squadron provided airlift support during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. The squadron was again called on to provide emergency airlift support during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October and November 1962, transporting TAC support forces and materiel to Florida, Army units to stations in the southeastern United States and Marine reinforcements to Guantanamo Bay.
In July 1962, TAC established a Combat Crew Training School at Sewart. Starting with a single squadron, by the spring of 1963, the school had expanded to a full wing, the 4442d Combat Crew Training Wing. As a result of the expansion of the C-130 training unit, the 463d Wing, including the squadron, moved to Langley Air Force Base, Virginia in July 1963. From Langley, the squadron deployed crews and planes to support the US response during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in the late summer of 1964. In late April 1965, the squadron participated in Operation Power Pack. Following a military coup in the Dominican Republic, Nineteenth Air Force formed an airlift task force to airlift the 82nd Airborne Division. On 28 and 29 April, the squadron flew C-130s to Pope Air Force Base to join the task force to transport elements of the 82nd Division to San Isidro Air Base. By September, peacekeeping functions had been transferred to Latin American counties' forces and the squadron helped return American forces to the United States.

Vietnam War

While participating in Power Pack, the squadron was also deploying forces to airlift men and material to Southeast Asia. In November 1965, the 463d Wing moved to Mactan Island Airfield, in the Philippines to provide this support full time, although the squadron moved to Clark Air Base.

The squadron deployed crews and planes operating combat airlift missions in Vietnam under the operational control of the 315th Air Division. The squadron also flew aeromedical evacuation missions. In August 1967, the squadron became the 773d Tactical Airlift Squadron, and in July 1968, the 463d Wing moved from Mactan to Clark Air Base, joining the squadron. The 773d became nonoperational at the middle of October 1971 and was inactivated on 31 October.

Operations from Dyess

Just under a year later, on 1 June 1972, the squadron was reactivated at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, when it absorbed the personnel, equipment and mission of the 348th Tactical Airlift Squadron, which was inactivated. The squadron deployed as a unit frequently to Europe, where it came under the operational control of the 513th Tactical Airlift Wing in England or the 322d Tactical Airlift Wing in Germany, and later the 313th Tactical Airlift Group. It also deployed less frequently to the Pacific where it was controlled by the 374th Tactical Airlift Wing. The squadron flew humanitarian missions and participated in exercises. In November 1991, the squadron was assigned to the 463d Operations Group and redesignated the 773d Airlift Squadron with the implementation of the Objective Wing organization at Dyess. The squadron was inactivated and its personnel and equipment were transferred to the 40th Airlift Squadron on 1 October 1993, when all operational units at Dyess became part of the 7th Wing.

Reserve operations

On 1 April 1995, the Air Force reactivated the 773d at Youngstown-Warren Air Reserve Station, as part of the 910th Airlift Wing. The 773d flew numerous humanitarian missions from Europe to the former Yugoslavia; delivering peacekeeping forces, food, and medicines to aid the people of the region. The 773d also continued rotational airlift for Central and South America, Southeast Asia and the Far East. After 2001, members of the squadron were mobilized numerous times in support of the Global War on Terrorism. They operated out of bases in Southwest Asia including isolated airfields in Iraq and Afghanistan to provide airlift and airdrop capability of equipment and personnel. The squadron was inactivated on 31 March 2014.

Lineage

Campaign StreamerCampaignDatesNotes
Air Offensive, Europe11 March 1944 – 5 June 1944773d Bombardment Squadron
Air Combat, EAME Theater11 March 1944 – 11 May 1945773d Bombardment Squadron
Rome-Arno11 March – 9 September 1944773d Bombardment Squadron
Central Europe22 March 1944 – 21 May 1945773d Bombardment Squadron
Normandy6 June 1944 – 24 July 1944773d Bombardment Squadron
Northern France25 July 1944 – 14 September 1944773d Bombardment Squadron
Southern France15 August 1944 – 14 September 1944773d Bombardment Squadron
North Apennines10 September 1944 – 4 April 1945773d Bombardment Squadron
Rhineland15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945773d Bombardment Squadron
Po Valley3 April 1945 – 8 May 1945773d Bombardment Squadron