World War II The first predecessor of the
squadron was activated as the
8th Observation Squadron at
Pope Field, North Carolina in February 1942. Two months after activating, it moved to
Langley Field, Virginia. Although the squadron was equipped with a variety of aircraft, At Langley the unit began the
target towing mission in addition to the
artillery spotting mission of an
observation squadron. while the groups and squadrons acting as training units were disbanded or inactivated. This resulted in the 14th, along with other units at
Camp Davis, being disbanded in the spring of 1944 The squadron was reconstituted in the fall of 1944 at
McChord Field,
Washington and equipped with
North American B-25 Mitchell bombers modified to serve as target tugs. It arrived on
Biak, an island north of
New Guinea, on 6 January 1945, then moved to
Nadzab Airfield on the main island, where it began towing targets for artillery and air-to-air gunnery training. The 914th ARS received its first KC-135A on 17 January 1962. The aircraft was named
Arkansas Traveler, after the Arkansas
folklore character. The squadron's mission was to provide
air refueling to the B-52s of its parent
wing and other
USAF units as directed. One-third of the squadron's aircraft were maintained on fifteen-minute
alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. This was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962 for the
Cuban Missile Crisis. The 914th ARS received the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its work during and after the crisis. The squadron trained for this mission until inactivation. The 914th ARS was inactivated in October 1964 to make way for the
97th Air Refueling Squadron, which was transferred from
Malmstrom Air Force Base,
Montana to take over refueling duties for the 97th Wing. The
14th Tow Target Squadron was consolidated with the
914th Air Refueling Squadron in September 1985 but the consolidated squadron has not been active since. On 27 March 2003 the squadron was converted to provisional status as the
914th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron and assigned to
Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed for contingency operations. ==Lineage==