347th Tactical Airlift Squadron

Reserve training and Korean War callup The squadron was activated in the reserves at Memphis Municipal Airport, Tennessee in June 1949 when Continental Air Command implemented the wing base organization, in which combat groups and all supporting units on a base were assigned to a single wing, for its reserve units. At Memphis, it was assigned to the 516th Troop Carrier Group, which absorbed most of the reservists from the inactivating 95th Bombardment Group. The squadron trained under the supervision of the 2584th Air Force Reserve Training Center until April 1951. The 347th was called to active duty that month and, along with other reserve troop carrier organizations mobilized for Tactical Air Command during the Korean War, formed the new Eighteenth Air Force. It participated in tactical exercises and worldwide airlift. It converted from Curtiss C-46 Commando to Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar aircraft in 1952. The 347th was inactivated and replaced by the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron in January 1953. Helicopter assault operations The squadron was reactivated in 1955 and assigned to the 516th Troop Carrier Group at Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee as the 347th Troop Carrier Squadron, Assault, Rotary Wing in part to test the United States Air Force's ability to provide helicopter airlift to the Army. The 347th was initially equipped with Sikorsky H-19 helicopters, but soon replaced them with Piasecki H-21s. Its operations included participation in Operation Backlash II, which was a survey mission to fix the location of radar sites and support the construction of the Mid-Canada Line. The group also tested the evacuation of key high ranking personnel from Washington DC in the event of a nuclear attack. Fixed wing airlift in the United States Three months later, the squadron was reactivated at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina as a Fairchild C-123 Provider unit. The squadron trained to airlift troops, equipment and supplies into combat zones, to resupply forces, and evacuate casualties. In 1958, the squadron and most of the C-123s at Sewart were transferred to Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina and the squadron's parent 513th Troop Carrier Wing was inactivated. In July 1963 the squadron moved on paper to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, where it replaced the 18th Troop Carrier Squadron and assumed its mission, equipment and personnel, when the 18th moved to Sewart. Until it was inactivated in 1972, the squadron participated in a constant stream of exercises and operations. The squadron frequently deployed its crews and aircraft to Europe and the Pacific. ==Lineage==