World War II The first predecessor of the
squadron was activated on 1 April 1944 as the
41st Bombardment Squadron at
Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas for training with
Boeing B-29 Superfortresses. however, before it became much more than a "paper" unit, it was inactivated on 10 May. The squadron was equipped with the
Bell Aircraft manufactured B-29B, which was designed to save weight by removing all of the guns and sighting equipment used on other B-29s, except the tail gun, allowing the B-29B to fly a little higher and a little further. The B-29B also had two new radar units installed, the
AN/APQ-7 Eagle radar for bombing and navigation and the AN/APG-15 for aiming the tail gun. These two radar units gave the B-29B a distinctive shape as the APQ-7 antenna appeared as a small wing under the fuselage, between the two bomb bay doors and the APG-15 added a ball shaped antenna to the tail of the aircraft below the tail guns. The squadron arrived at its combat station,
Northwest Field on
Guam on 14 April 1945. The squadron flew its first combat mission on 19 June 1945, attacking Japanese fortifications on the
Truk Atoll. Later that month, on 26 June, it flew its first mission attacking a target in Japan. For the remainder of the war, it operated principally against the enemy's petroleum industry on the island of
Honshu. These attacks included missions against the
Maruzen oil refinery at Shimotso, the Utsobo oil refinery at
Yokkaichi and the petroleum center at
Kawasaki during the week beginning on 6 July 1945. For its performance on these missions, the squadron was awarded the
Distinguished Unit Citation.
Air Force reserve The squadron was reactivated as a
reserve unit under
Air Defense Command (ADC) at
Long Beach Municipal Airport, California in July 1947, where it was assigned to the
448th Bombardment Group. Its training was supervised by the 416th AAF Base Unit (later the 2347th Air Force Reserve Training Center). Although nominally a B-29 unit, it is not clear whether or not the squadron was fully staffed or equipped. In 1948
Continental Air Command (ConAC) assumed responsibility for managing reserve and
Air National Guard units from ADC. In June 1949 ConAC reorganized its reserve units under the
wing base organization, and in connection with this reorganization, the squadron was inactivated and replaced by the
711th Bombardment Squadron.
Air refueling During the
Cold War,
Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases with large concentrations of bombers made attractive targets. SAC’s response was to break up its wings and scatter their aircraft over a larger number of bases. As part of this dispersal program, in August 1958, SAC organized the
4039th Strategic Wing at
Griffiss Air Force Base, New York. The
41st Air Refueling Squadron was activated on 5 January 1959 as the
wing's first operational flying squadron and began to equip with
Boeing KC-135A Stratotankers. After it became operational, in 1960, the squadron began to maintain one third of its aircraft on fifteen minute
alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce its vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. This was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962. It conducted
air refueling on a global scale to meet SAC commitments. Soon after detection of Soviet missiles in Cuba, SAC placed additional KC-135s on alert to replace KC-135s devoted to maintaining 1/8 of the B-52 bomber force on airborne alert. On 24 October 1962, SAC went to
DEFCON 2, placing all the squadron's aircraft on alert and increased the size of its forward deployed tanker task forces. On 27 November SAC returned to its normal alert posture. In February 1963, The
416th Bombardment Wing assumed the aircraft, personnel and equipment of the 4039th wing, which was discontinued. The 4039th was a
Major Command controlled (MAJCON) wing, which could not carry a permanent history or lineage, and SAC wanted to replace it with a permanent unit. The 41st was assigned to the newly-activated 416th Wing. In September 1985, the
41st Bombardment Squadron and the
41st Air Refueling Squadron were consolidated into a single unit. During
Operation Desert Storm it deployed an aircraft and crew to the 1702d Air Refueling Squadron (Provisional) at
Seeb International Airport. After SAC was disestablished and the air refueling mission was transferred to
Air Mobility Command (AMC), the squadron was assigned to the
380th Operations Group, as AMC consolidated its air refueling operations. It was inactivated on 15 February 1992. In 2002, the squadron was converted to provisional status as the
41st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, but has not been active since then. ==Lineage==