World War II Heavy bomber replacement training The
462d Bombardment Squadron was first activated in July 1942 at
Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah as one of the four original squadrons of the
331st Bombardment Group. In September it moved to
Casper Army Air Field, where it became a
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Replacement Training Unit until 1943, when it converted to the
Consolidated B-24 Liberator. However, the
Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were not proving to be well adapted to the training mission, particularly to replacement training. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit, while the groups and squadrons acting as replacement training units were disbanded or inactivated. This resulted in the 462d, along with other units at Casper, being inactivated in the spring of 1944 and being replaced by the 211th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Station, Heavy), which assumed the 331st Group's mission, personnel, and equipment along with supporting units at Casper, which were disbanded or inactivated.
Very heavy bomber operations In August 1944, the squadron was reactivated as a
Boeing B-29 Superfortress unit at
Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas and assigned to the
346th Bombardment Group. In December it moved to
Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas, where it began training with B-29s, along with some B-17s until B-29s became available. The squadron arrived at its combat station,
Kadena Airfield, Okinawa two days before
V-J Day. Although the war ended before the squadron could begin operations, a few of its crews formed part of its advanced echelon and flew missions with B-29 units of
Twentieth Air Force. The squadron flew several
show of force missions from Okinawa over Japan following
VJ Day. It also evacuated
prisoners of war from camps in Japan to the Philippines. The squadron was inactivated on Okinawa in June 1946. In July 1966, Detachment 1 of the
361st Reconnaissance Squadron was established at
Pleiku Air Base, although its first "Electric Goon" did not arrive until December. Detachment 2 of the 6994th Security Squadron, which would operate the planes' direction finding equipment, was organized in September. On 1 February 1967, Detachment 1 was discontinued and transferred its personnel and equipment to the newly organized
362d Reconnaissance Squadron. The squadron also engaged in
special operations, dropping leaflets. In addition to the
psychological warfare benefits of these missions, they also provided cover for the squadron's actual ARDF mission. It also engaged in
visual reconnaissance, not only detecting enemy vehicles, but occasionally locating transmitters on the open seas and providing that information to the
Navy for its
Operation Market Time blockade. During the November 1967
Battle of Dak To, squadron ARDF identified NVA units moving toward the
Dak To Base Camp. During the battle, squadron identification of the location of enemy units was used to target
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strikes on "known base areas, infiltration routes and strong points." Squadron provided ARDF frequently provided location information for B-52 strikes. In early 1968, operations near the DMZ near
Khe Sanh increased, with two of the squadron's planes flying daily missions in the area. In the spring of 1969, the squadron was moved from Pleiku, which was being turned over to the
South Vietnam Air Force to
Phan Rang Air Base. The squadron's parent
460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing was inactivated on 31 August 1971, and the squadron was transferred to the
483d Tactical Airlift Wing. The impending closure of Phan Rang in 1972 required the squadron to move to
Da Nang Air Base on 1 February 1972, where it was assigned to the
366th Tactical Fighter Wing When the 366th Wing moved to Thailand, the 362d became part of the 6498th Air Base Wing until it was inactivated on 28 February 1973 ==Lineage==