16th Airlift Squadron

The 16th Airlift Squadron provide combat-ready Boeing C-17A Globemaster III aircrews for worldwide airlift missions supporting Department of Defense and National Command Authority directives. They conduct airdrop and air-land operations supporting global contingencies for combatant commanders by projecting and sustaining combat forces directly into theater drop zones and austere airfields. The unit perform emergency nuclear airlift, aeromedical evacuation & humanitarian relief missions in the technologically advanced, C-17A airlift aircraft in all phases of ground and flight activity. ==History==

World War II 20 Nov 1940, the unit was constituted as 16 Transport Squadron and activated two weeks later on 11 Dec 1940. On February 16, 1972, Lockheed C-130E Hercules #62-1813, c/n 3775, of the 16th Tactical Airlift Training Squadron, mid-air collision with Cessna T-37 Tweet, 6 kilometers northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas. Following post-Cold War reorganization, the squadron was redesignated as the 16th Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991 under the 314th Operations Group. Strategic airlift On 1 October 1993 the squadron was reassigned without aircraft or personnel to the 437th Operations Group, Charleston AFB, South Carolina, to replace the 76th Airlift Squadron flying the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter. Over the next six years the 16th AS provided the nation's only long-range, rapid-response, special operations low level (SOLL) capability. The squadron provided the backbone of the nation's elite special operations forces and used the "Bad to the Bone" motto on their unit patches. Ever vigilant in sitting continuous alert 24 hours, 7 days a week, the 16th routinely responded to short-notice National Command Authority taskings. The squadron used uniquely qualified aircrews, trained in the use of enhanced night vision equipment and specially modified aircraft for unconventional warfare ops. In this capacity, the 16th AS was tasked with delivering the sting of US special forces by maintaining continuous JCS-directed alert force for global contingencies and thus provide the nation's rapid deployment airlift/airdrop capability. These crews rapidly deployed and inserted special operations ground forces into blacked-out, austere airfields/drop zones and extracted those ground forces upon mission completion. This unique mission was formally transferred to McGuire AFB, New Jersey in April 1999. The last C-141 to leave Charleston AFB occurred on or about 7 September 2000 and the squadron was officially inactivated on 29 September 2000. The squadron was reactivated 1 Jul 2002 as the fourth active duty flying squadron operating the C-17 Globemaster III. ==Lineage==

• Constituted as the 16th Transport Squadron on 20 November 1940 : Activated on 11 December 1940 : Redesignated 16th Troop Carrier Squadron on 4 July 1942 : Inactivated on 31 July 1945 • Activated on 19 May 1947 : Inactivated on 10 September 1948 • Redesignated 16th Troop Carrier Squadron, Assault, Light on 19 September 1950 : Activated on 5 October 1950 : Redesignated 16th Troop Carrier Squadron, Assault, Fixed Wing on 8 November 1954 : Inactivated on 8 July 1955 • Redesignated 16th Tactical Airlift Training Squadron on 14 August 1969 : Activated on 15 October 1969 : Redesignated 16th Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991 : Inactivated on 29 September 2000 • Activated on 1 July 2002 France, 7 September-11 October 1944 • Rosignano Airfield, Italy, 10 January-23 May 1945 (operated from Brindisi Airfield, Italy, 29 March-13 May 1945) • Waller Field, Trinidad, 4 June-31 July 1945 • Langley Field, Virginia, 19 May 1947 – 10 September 1948 • Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee, 5 October 1950 • Ardmore Air Force Base, Oklahoma, 14 November 1954 – 8 July 1955 • Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee, 15 October 1969 • Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, c. 15 March 1970 • Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, 1 October 1993 – 29 September 2000 • Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina, 1 July 2002 – present Aircraft • Douglas C-47 Skytrain (1941–1945) • Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar (1950–1951) • Chase YC-122 Avitruc (1951–1955) • Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw (1952) • Sikorsky H-5 (1952) • Lockheed C-130 Hercules (1969–1993) • Lockheed C-141 Starlifter (1993–2000) • Boeing C-17 Globemaster III (2002–present) Awards and campaigns • Campaigns. World War II: Algeria-French Morocco; Tunisia; Sicily; Naples-Foggia; Rome-Arno; Southern France; North Apennines; Po Valley; India-Burma; Air Combat, EAME Theater. • Decorations. Distinguished Unit Citation: CBI Theater, 7 Apr-15 Jun 1944. Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards: 30 September 1975 – 30 June 1976; 1 June 1985 – 31 May 1986; 1 July 1991 – 30 June 1993; 1 July 1993 – 30 June 1995; 1 July 1995 – 30 June 1997; 1 July 1997 – 30 June 1998; 1 July 1998 – 29 September 2000. ==References==