Origins The 3rd Flying Training Squadron dates to the organization of the 3rd Aero Squadron on 1 November 1916 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Most of the officers and men of the Squadron were transferred from the Aviation School at
Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, where, at the time, all Army aviators were trained. There, it replaced the
1st Aero Squadron, whose members were sent to
Columbus Airfield, New Mexico as part of the
Punitive expedition against
Pancho Villa. There, the squadron may have operated some Curtiss JN-3s and possibly some Curtiss N-8s, preparing them to be sent south to Columbus. In December 1916, Congress authorized the lease of a 700-acre tract of land seven miles south of San Antonio, Texas for a new airfield to accommodate the rapidly expanding Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. By March 1917, men from the 3rd Aero Squadron were hard at work clearing the cotton plants from the land and laying foundations for hangars and mess halls at what would become Kelly Field. On 5 April 1917, one day before the United States entered World War I, four Curtiss JN-4 "Jennies" landed at the new field. On 29 August 1917 the 3rd Aero Squadron left Kelly Field for
Fort Sill, Oklahoma with 12 Curtiss R4 airplanes under the command of a Captain Weir to establish a new training airfield. The squadron was assigned to Henry Post Field (named after 2nd Lt. Henry B. Post who was killed in a plane crash in California in 1914). It was re-designated as Squadron A, Henry Post Field, Oklahoma. on 22 July 1918. At Post Field, the 3rd was most likely an observer training unit in support of the
United States Army Field Artillery School. In September 1917, the 4th Aero Squadron was transferred to Post Field from Fort Sam Houston, as a second training squadron. The 3rd was ordered to transfer 135 men to the 4th to bring the squadron up to its authorized strength. The 3rd was redesignated as "Squadron A", with the 4th being redesignated as "Squadron B" in July 1918. Both squadrons were demobilized at the end of World War I on 2 January 1919.
Philippines Duty The unit was re-formed as a new unit, designated as the 3rd Aero Squadron, on 13 May 1919 at Mitchel Field, New York. Many of the men were experienced mechanics and officers who had served either in France or at training units in the United States during World War I. After being organized, the squadron was transferred by train to San Francisco, California, where it boarded a ship bound for Manila, in the Philippine Islands, arriving on 18 August. The squadron was assigned to the Philippine Department, and was stationed initially at Camp Stotsenburg on Luzon. Some Dayton-Wright DH-4s, which were used as trainers during the war in the United States, arrived later in 1919 and were assigned to the squadron. On 10 March 1920, along with the 2d Aero Squadron, which had arrived in December 1919, the squadrons were organized into the 1st Group (Observation). On 14 March 1921, the squadron was re-designated as the 3rd Squadron (Pursuit), its mission was to provide coastal aerial defense as part of the 4th Composite Group, a re-designation of the 1st Group. In 1924, the squadron was formally consolidated with its World War I predecessor organization, giving it a history dating to 1 November 1916. As a result of the rising tensions with the
Japanese Empire in 1940, the defenses of the Philippines were judged to be abysmal, and a reinforcement effort was made to defend the islands against any Japanese aggression. The 3rd had received P-26 Peashooters in 1937, the latest in the line of second-line aircraft. These obsolete aircraft were replaced in early 1941 with impressed export versions of the Seversky P-35 being designated EP-106 by the company that were manufactured for the
Swedish Air Force. On 24 October 1940, President
Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order requisitioning all the undelivered EP-106 aircraft and impressing them into the USAAC. These were designated P-35A by the Army, and 40 planes were sent to the Philippines during 1941 to bolster the islands' defenses. The P-35As were replaced by Curtiss P-40 Warhawks in late 1941.
World War II The first word of the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was received by commercial radio between 0300 and 0330 hours local on 8 December 1941 in the Philippines. Within 30 minutes radar at Iba Field, Luzon plotted a formation of airplanes 75-miles (120-km) offshore, heading for
Corregidor Island. P-40's from the squadron were sent out to intercept but made no contact. By 1130 hours, the fighters sent into the air earlier landed for refueling, and radar disclosed another flight of Japanese aircraft 70-miles (112-km) West of
Lingayen Gulf, headed south. Fighters from the 3rd made another fruitless search over the
South China Sea. The P-40's sent on patrol over the South China Sea returned to Iba with fuel running low at the beginning of a Japanese attack on the airfield. The P-40's failed to prevent the bombing but did manage to prevent the
Japanese Zeros from a low-level strafe of the airfield and its ground support facilities. Zero low-level strafing had proved extremely destructive at
Clark Field earlier that day. The RADAR facilities at Iba, however, were destroyed in the attack. As a result of the successes of the
A-7D Corsair II-equipped
354th Tactical Fighter Wing (Deployed) at
Korat Royal Thai AFB, Thailand in the closing days of the
Vietnam War, Headquarters,
Pacific Air Forces requested the activation of a permanent A-7D squadron in Thailand. The Air Force, in turn, re-activated the 3rd as the 3rd Tactical Fighter Squadron at Korat on 15 March 1973, and the 354th transferred a squadron of its A-7Ds to the squadron, along with volunteer airmen who joined the host
388th Tactical Fighter Wing. With the end of active combat in Indochina, in March 1974, the 354th transferred several more aircraft to the 3rd TFS prior to its return to
Myrtle Beach AFB. Squadron aircraft practiced bombing and intercept missions in western Thailand. A large exercise was held on the first Monday of every month, involving all USAF units in Thailand. "Commando Scrimmage" covered skills such as dog fighting, aerial refueling, airborne command posts and forward air controllers. These exercises were taken very seriously. The A-7D aircraft were pitted against the
F-4 Phantom II aircraft in dissimilar air combat exercises. These missions were flown as a deterrent to the Communists in Vietnam as a signal that if the
Paris Peace Accords were broken, the United States would use its airpower to enforce its provisions. The wars in Cambodia and Laos, however continued, and in the spring of 1975, Communist regimes took power in both of those nations. The USAF presence at Korat RTAFB ended in 1975, and on 15 December, the 3rd TFS was transferred to
Clark Air Base, Philippines, replacing the
68th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which had been inactivated earlier. It was the first time the squadron had been assigned to the Philippines since the surrender of American forces on the islands in April 1942. Upon its arrival at Clark, the A-7Ds were flown back to the United States to be transferred to the
National Guard Bureau where they were reassigned to several
Air National Guard squadrons. The 3rd was re-equipped with
F-4E Phantom IIs that were transferred from other Thailand-based squadrons which were headed back to the United States. Throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, the squadron deployed throughout the Pacific on exercises and supported the training requirements of other units. Ironically, it was the 363rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, deployed to Korat RTAFB, that transferred its A-7D Corsair IIs to the re-activated 3rd Tactical Fighter Squadron in March 1973 after decades of inactivation.
Air Education and Training Command The 3rd Flying Training Squadron was reactivated on 1 April 1994 at
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. It was equipped with the Slingsby
T-3A Firefly with a mission to conduct AETC's Enhanced Flight Screening Program. On 2 April 2001, it was transferred to
Moody Air Force Base, Georgia where it became a
T-6 Texan II primary flying training squadron as part of the
479th Flying Training Group. As a result of BRAC 2005, the 479th was inactivated on 21 July 2007. Its aircraft and equipment were redistributed to other AETC units. The 3rd moved to
Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma later in April 2007 and was redesignated the 3rd Fighter Training Squadron to provide Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals training to fighter graduate students. The 3rd lost its IFF mission when the Air Force concentrated the training at three other bases in September 2011. In September 2012, the
32d Flying Training Squadron was inactivated, and its
T-1 Jayhawk training mission and personnel were taken over by the newly reactivated 3rd FTS at Vance in order to preserve the latter's heritage. ==Lineage==