Founded in 1914, the 26th is the oldest squadron in the
Air Force Reserve and one of the oldest in the
United States Air Force. The squadron was organized as the
1st Reserve Aero Squadron on 26 May 1917, the first squadron of what would become the
United States Air Force Reserve in 1948.
Origins Elements of the squadron date to November 1915 when it was organized as part of the
New York National Guard as the Aviation Detachment, First Battalion Signal Corps,
New York National Guard, and shortly thereafter as the
1st Aero Company. The company was provisionally recognized by the federal government on 22 June 1916 and brought to U.S. service on 13 July 1916, with the objective of sending personnel and equipment to the
1st Aero Squadron in Mexico with the
punitive expedition under General
John J. Pershing. After being federalized, the company began training on 22 July at the new
Mineola Signal Corps Aviation School under two Regular Army instructors assigned by the Signal Corps. The Army eventually trained 25 pilots but the 1st Aero Company was mustered out of federal service on 2 November 1916 without ever leaving Long Island, and was disbanded on 23 May 1917. In the meantime, the
National Defense Act of 1916, passed on 3 June, authorized an aviation section in the Signal Reserve Corps of 296 officers and 2,000 enlisted men as part of the Army's
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps. At
Fort Jay, New York, attorney Phillip A. Carroll established the Governors Island Training Corps, a privately funded program to train civilians to pass the Reserve Military Aviator flying test and receive commissions in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps. The instructional program was under the guidance of the Army's
Eastern Department, commanded by Major Gen.
Leonard Wood, and trained seven civilians who were commissioned as Reserve Military Aviators.
World War I After the United States' entry into
World War I, the unit, less New York guardsmen and the new Reserve military Aviators were organized into a new unit at Mineola by Major
Raynal Bolling and now-Captain Carroll. Federalized in June 1917, the
1st Reserve Aero Squadron trained during the summer of 1917 and sailed for Europe aboard the
RMS Baltic on 23 August with eight other aero squadrons. Reaching France in
Le Havre on 17 September, it arrived at its duty station at
Issoudun Aerodrome, home of the
Third Aviation Instruction Center, on 21 September. After receiving further training in French schools in Pau and
Tours Aerodrome until November, it assembled, serviced, and repaired aircraft. The 1st was redesignated as the
26th Aero Squadron on 1 October 1917 as part of a reorganization of the Air Service of the AEF. The 26th Aero Squadron left Issoudun on 13 April 1919, and remained in France until May 1919 when the unit returned to the United States and was demobilized.
Interwar period The
26th Squadron (Attack) was authorized on 30 August 1921 and the following month was organized and assigned to the
3d Attack Group at
Kelly Field, Texas. It was assigned various World War I era biplanes and experimental American aircraft of the 1920s. The squadron patrolled the Mexican Border, delivered airmail and performed other missions as assigned until inactivating in 1924, shortly after consolidating with the World War I
26th Aero Squadron. The squadron was reactivated as the
26th Attack Squadron at
Wheeler Field, Hawaii in 1930 and was equipped with
Curtiss A-3 Falcons, Beginning in May 1941, the squadron began training with the
Boeing B-17D Flying Fortress, with the capability to fly longer missions from its base at Hickam.
World War II The squadron was at Hickam during the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. The squadron flew patrol and search mission from the Hawaiian Islands, including air support during the
Battle of Midway. In June 1942, shortly after the
Battle of Midway, the 11th Group was authorized as a mobile force by the
Army Air Forces in order to respond to a
Navy request by
Admiral Nimitz for long-range armed search planes to locate Japanese fleets, accompanied with firepower to withstand defending Japanese
interceptors while tracking the fleet. The 11th Group left Hawaii to support Navy operations in the South Pacific Theater during the
Guadalcanal and
Northern Solomon Islands Campaigns. The squadron moved to the
New Hebrides on 25 July 1942 and became part of
Thirteenth Air Force. It bombed airfields, supply dumps, ships, docks, troop positions, and other objectives in the South Pacific from July to November 1942, and received a
Distinguished Unit Citation for those operations. It continued operations in the South Pacific, attacking Japanese airfields, installations, and shipping until late March 1943. The squadron returned to Hawaii and the control of
Seventh Air Force on 11 May 1943. In Hawaii, the squadron equipped with
Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers, which it flew until the end of the war. Its training Included missions against
Wake Island and other central Pacific bases held by the Japanese. It deployed to
Ellice Island on 11 November 1943 and resumed combat participating in the Allied offensive through the
Gilbert,
Marshall and
Marianas Islands, while operating from Funafuti, Tarawa, and Kwajalein. "The [squadron] moved to
Guam on 25 October 1944 and attacked shipping and airfields in the Volcano and Bonin Islands. It moved to
Okinawa on 2 July 1945 to participate in the final phases of the air offensive against Japan, bombing railways, airfields, and harbor facilities on
Kyushu and striking Japanese airfields in Eastern China."
Postwar operations in the Pacific After
V-J Day, the squadron flew surveillance and reconnaissance missions over China and ferried former
prisoners of war to the Philippines. In December 1945 the squadron moved without personnel or equipment to
Fort William McKinley, Philippines. At the end of April 1946, it was designated as a very heavy bomber unit. The following month, it moved to
Northwest Field, Guam and began to re-equip with
Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, but terminated all operations and training by October. The squadron remained on Guam on paper until inactivating on 20 October 1948.
Strategic Air Command bomber operations The squadron was activated under
Strategic Air Command in December 1948 at
Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, the squadron received the new
Convair B-36B Peacemaker intercontinental strategic bomber. It upgraded to the jet-assisted B-36D in 1950, then the B-36J-III Featherweight in 1954. The squadron trained in heavy bombardment operations and participated in many SAC exercises and deployments. In 1958 moved to
Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma and was re-equipped with new
Boeing B-52E Stratofortresses and continued operations as well as standing nuclear alert. Remained at Altus on alert status until B-52Es were phased out of SAC service and consigned to storage in 1968. Afterward the squadron was inactivated.
Fighter and aggressor operations The squadron was activated under
Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) at
Clark Air Base, Philippines in 1973 with a training mission to provide dissimilar air combat training to PACAF fighter squadrons using Soviet-style fighter tactics. It was non-operational until the end of August 1975, by which time the
405th Fighter Wing had been replaced by the
3rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Clark. Even then, it did not start training activities until January 1976, using a number of
Northrop T-38 Talon aircraft made surplus by the arrival of the
Northrop F-5E Tiger IIs at
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Eventually, the squadron also received the F-5E, with some of the planes coming from stocks destined for the
Republic of Vietnam Air Force but never delivered and an embargoed
Ethiopian Air Force order. By that time it had been redesignated the
26th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron, and then as a tactical fighter training and aggressor squadron. Eventually, it became the
26th Aggressor Squadron. The aggressor F-5Es were painted in a variety of colorful camouflage schemes designed to mimic those in use by
Warsaw Pact aircraft. Two-digit Soviet-style nose codes were applied to most aggressor aircraft, and these coincided with the last two digits of the serial number. When there was duplication, three digits were used. The squadron was among the first to apply the star and bar in toned-down or stencil form. By the late 1980s, the aircraft were becoming worn out after years of high-performance fighter training, with some aircraft being grounded for structural failures. In addition, the F-5E no longer could provide the training as a new generation of Soviet aircraft were becoming operational. The 26th at Clark was scheduled to dispose of its F-5Es in favor of
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon and move to
Kadena Air Base,
Okinawa, in October 1988. The unit was minimally manned at Kadena while the squadron awaited new aircraft, flying a few borrowed aircraft from the
18th Tactical Fighter Wing. However, in 1990, the decision was made to terminate the entire USAF aggressor program. The 26th AS was inactivated on 21 February 1990 before it could receive its own F-16s.
Space aggressor unit Reactivated under
Air Force Space Command in 2003 as the
26th Space Aggressor Squadron, part of the
310th Space Wing at
Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado. In 2007 the unit was reassigned to the
926th Group at Nellis and was transferred to
Air Combat Command. However, the 26th remained at Schriever SFB, despite the organization as a geographically separated unit. ==Lineage==