World War II Training and antisubmarine warfare in the United States The
squadron was first activated as the
390th Bombardment Squadron at
Gowen Field, Idaho on 20 March 1942, but immediately moved to
McChord Field, Washington, where it replaced the
77th Bombardment Squadron of the
42d Bombardment Group, which had deployed to Alaska following the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and was attached to another group. When it joined the 42d, the
group was dispersed on several bases in the
Pacific Northwest to provide greater coverage for
antisubmarine patrols with
detachments at smaller fields. The group primarily used
Lockheed A-29 Hudsons for its antisubmarine work, but also flew several other types. Most of the initial personnel of the 390th were drawn from the group's headquarters squadron at McChord. While antisubmarine patrols continued, the squadron trained
North American B-25 Mitchell combat crews for the Alaskan Defense Command. The ground echelon assembled at
Camp Stoneman for overseas shipment aboard the and the , departing for
Noumea on 27 and 28 March. It launched its first attack on 25 June, when it struck the support areas of
Vila Airfield, on
Kolombangara. The 390th attacked Japanese
airfields, personnel areas, gun positions, and shipping. Shipping attacks relied on what were referred to as "snooper" missions,
armed reconnaissance sorties, flown at night, searching for Japanese shipping to attack. On 20 July, squadron participated in a successful attack on Japanese combatant ships "Mitchells of the 69th Squadron . . . on all night shipping alert [had left a Japanese]
light cruiser burning and dead in the water . . . At 0720 eight Mitchells of the 390th Squadron found the cruiser damaged in the previous night's action creeping to friendly waters at a speed of 2 knots. Although sorely wounded, her defense was still vicious, pouring anti-aircraft fire from at least 30 stations. Feints at various quarters divided the fire and allowed individual planes to launch masthead attacks. Lieut. Schauffler ended the fray when one of his bombs exploded in the ship's magazine. Two minutes later she slipped into the depths, carrying with her at least 75% of her crew." During most of this period, the 42d group could maintain only two squadrons in the Solomons at a time, and at the end of July 1943, the 70th and 75th squadrons moved forward, while the 390th and the
69th Bombardment Squadron moved to rear areas to refit. On 22 October the squadron made a short move to Renard Field in the
Russell Islands along with group headquarters and the
75th Bombardment Squadron. However, space was not available for all the group's squadrons on Stirling Island and the 390th continued to use Stirling as a staging base until July 1944, It was early September before the entire air echelon of the 42d group arrived in New Guinea, with the latecomers practicing
skip bombing and participating in mock invasion
exercises in the
Russell Islands and
Admiralty Islands. Through January 1945, it bombed airfields and installations on
New Guinea,
Celebes, and
Halmahera, and flew reconnaissance missions. ; Philippines The 390th moved to the
Philippines in March 1945. By the time it had settled in at
Puerto Princesa Airfield, its original flying cadre from the Solomons campaign had rotated back to the United States after flying the required number of missions. However, few of the ground crews were returned to the States, although many had expected to be relieved when rotation policies were announced, but then cancelled. From this base on
Palawan the squadron attacked shipping along the China coast, struck targets in
French Indochina, bombed airfields and installations in the Philippines, and supported ground operations on
Mindanao. The squadron's final combat action of World War II was attacking isolated Japanese units on
Luzon during July and August 1945. In August it was alerted for a move to
Okinawa. However, with the end of the war, the move was cancelled.
Cold War Strategic Air Command (SAC) activated the
90th Air Refueling Squadron at
Castle Air Force Base, California in January 1954. The squadron received its personnel and
Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters from the
340th Air Refueling Squadron, which moved without personnel and equipment to
Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. Within months, the squadron deployed to
Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, Labrador, where it provided forward based air refueling support for SAC bombers. The squadron deployed to
Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco for three months in April 1955. Shortly after returning, it moved on paper to
Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas in August 1955, arriving as its parent, the
90th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, was returning from a four-month deployment to
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. At Forbes, the squadron began building up again and began flying
air refueling missions in February 1956. In June 1960 the 90th wing became non-operational and the squadron was reassigned to the
40th Bombardment Wing, also located at Forbes, until it was inactivated with the phaseout of the KC-97 from SAC. In September 1985 the
390th Bombardment Squadron and the
90th Air Refueling Squadron were consolidated into a single unit.
Air Mobility In June 2002 the consolidated squadron was redesignated the
90th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, converted to provisional status, and assigned to
Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed. The unit was active at
Incirlik Air Base, Turkey as a
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker organization as part of the
385th Air Expeditionary Group. The squadron was composed of a mix of members from active duty, the
Air National Guard, and the
Air Force Reserve. It participated on
Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq and
Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. After 2005, the squadron mission changed from refueling fighter aircraft, focusing instead on refueling
Lockheed C-5 Galaxys and
McDonnell Douglas C-17 Globemaster IIIs entering and departing the area of operations. This forward refueling permits the transports to minimize the time they are on the ground, because they can load or offload their loads without spending additional time to refuel. In March 2013, the squadron departed Incirlik for another location in Southwest Asia. ==Lineage==