World War II The first predecessor of the flight, the
610th Bombardment Squadron, was activated at
Pyote Army Air Base, Texas on 1 March 1943 as one of the original four
squadrons of the
400th Bombardment Group. The squadron's
cadre was training at
Orlando Army Air Base, Florida until about 2 May 1943 and few personnel were located with the squadron at Pyote or at
Davis–Monthan Field, Arizona. Once its cadre had returned from Orlando, the squadron moved to
Pueblo Army Air Base, Colorado and began training with
Consolidated B-24 Liberators, moving to
Smoky Hill Army Air Field, at the end of July to continue aircrew training. However, the AAF was finding that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible
tables of organization were proving poorly adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, in the spring of 1944, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. As a result of this reorganization, the 610th, along with the remaining elements of the 400th Group, was disbanded on 10 April 1944 and its mission, personnel and aircraft were transferred to the 113th AAF Base Unit (Bombardment, Heavy).
Air refueling operations Strategic Air Command KC-97 operations The second predecessor of the flight is the
310th Air Refueling Squadron, which was activated on 8 October 1952 at Smoky Hill Air Force Base, Kansas as part of the
310th Bombardment Wing. It was not until January 1953, however, that the squadron received its first
Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters. Although the squadron focused on refueling the
Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, and after 1954, the
Boeing B-47 Stratojets of its parent 310th Wing, it provided
air refueling support with for
Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombers through the 1950s and early 1960s. During deployments with the 310th Wing, the squadron's aircraft also served as transports, carrying extra air crew, support personnel, and spare parts. Later, the squadron made deployments with its KC-97s to forward locations, placing it ahead of the faster Stratojets it would refuel, and on their programmed route. The squadron deployed to England on detached duty at
RAF East Kirkby from November until December 1957. SAC also deployed the squadron to
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, Newfoundland from 1 to 28 March 1954 and 28 December 1955 to 28 February 1956 and to
Goose Air Base, Newfoundland from 25 March to 8 July 1958 to provide air refueling support in the North Atlantic area. The squadron began to phase out its KC-97s in October 1961, losing its final airplane in November 1963, when it became non-operational.
Conversion to KC-135s Unlike most refueling squadrons assigned to B-47 wings, the squadron began to convert to the
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker while still assigned to the 310th Wing. It received its first KC-135 on 3 March 1964 and had a full complement of jet tankers and combat ready aircrews by June. In April 1965, as the 310th Wing was preparing for inactivation as the B-47 left the SAC inventory, the squadron moved to
Walker Air Force Base, New Mexico, where it was attached to the
6th Strategic Aerospace Wing, which flew
Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses. When the 310th Wing inactivated in June, the attachment to the 6th Wing became a reassignment. The squadron began to deploy crews and tankers to Southeast Asia to refuel combat aircraft and also regularly refueled tactical aircraft deploying to the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The squadron's stay at Walker was brief, however, as that base closed in 1967, after
Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense directed a phaseout program that reduced SAC's bomber force, retiring older B-52 models. On 25 January 1967, the squadron moved to
Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York, where it was assigned to the
380th Strategic Aerospace Wing, another B-52 unit. From Plattsburgh, the squadron supported tanker task forces in Europe and Alaska and made with temporary deployments of planes and crews to operational theaters. In October 1973, it deployed aircraft and crews to
Lajes Field in the Azores, to refuel
Lockheed C-141 Starlifters and
Lockheed C-5 Galaxys transporting war materiel to Israel during
Yom Kippur War. Missions supporting combat in Southeast Asia ended in 1976, but the squadron deployed crews and aircraft as part of tanker task forces in the Pacific area. The squadron supported the new bomber, and participated in SAC and USAF
exercises worldwide. In 1985, the Air Force consolidated the 310th with the World War II 610th Bombardment Squadron. The consolidated squadron refueled aircraft of all major commands, the
Air National Guard,
Air Force Reserve, and other military services until it was inactivated on 1 October 1994. ==Lineage==