World War II The
squadron was first activated at
March Field, California in January 1941 as the
2d Reconnaissance Squadron, and was attached to the
30th Bombardment Group per
General Headquarters Air Force's policy of attaching one reconnaissance squadron to each bombardment group. Four months later it moved to
New Orleans Airport, Louisiana, where it trained with the
Douglas B-18 Bolo. Following the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron returned to California where it participated in
antisubmarine patrols, re-equipping with
Consolidated B-24 Liberators for operations. It was redesignated the
392d Bombardment Squadron in April 1942 and assigned directly to the 30th Bombardment Group. In June 1942, the unit added the mission of training
aircrews in the B-24 and in the LB-30 Lend Lease version of the Liberator. As the war moved closer to Japan, the squadron attacked airfields and
naval bases in the
Truk Islands to neutralize forces there during invasions in the
Mariana Islands. Despite rumors that the group was to receive the
Consolidated B-32 Dominator, the elements in Hawaii conducted training sorties and routine patrols with their Liberators until inactivating in November 1945. The squadron was assigned to the
92d Bombardment Wing, but was attached to
Second Air Force as a non-operational unit until the middle of September 1957, when it moved on paper to
Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, where it acquired a few
Boeing KB-29 Superfortress tankers, but became non-operational again in October. The squadron was declared combat ready in September 1958. In March 1959, the 92d flew its first mission supporting
Operation Chrome Dome. Soon after detection of Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1962,
Strategic Air Command (SAC) placed additional squadron KC-135s on alert to replace tankers devoted to maintaining 1/8 of SAC's B-52 bomber force on airborne alert. With the exception of aircraft deployed to support advanced Tanker Task Forces, all squadron aircraft went on alert on 24 October, as SAC assumed
DEFCON 2. On 21 November, SAC returned to normal airborne alert posture. SAC finally returned to its normal alert posture on 27 November. At various times between January 1970 and December 1975, detachments of the unit were organized at
Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho and at
Malmstrom and
Glasgow Air Force Bases, Montana, where the 92d maintained part of its tanker alert force. It routinely deployed in support of
Operations Southern and
Northern Watch, which required a constant presence of tankers and personnel to enforce the UN-sanctioned no-fly zones in Iraq. The unit also deployed aircraft and personnel in 1999 to support
Operation Allied Force, the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization strikes against Serb forces in the
Kosovo War.
Operation Enduring Freedom Following the terrorist attacks on
9/11, the squadron began providing around-the-clock air refueling of
combat air patrol fighter aircraft and began to maintain ground alert operations in support of
Operation Noble Eagle, the expansion of security forces to defend the United States from potential terrorist attacks. Preparations also began for what would become a series of extended
Operation Enduring Freedom deployments as well as Operation New Dawn, operations in Iraq after August 2010. On 1 October 2007, the
141st Air Refueling Wing became an associate unit of the 92d wing and its
116th Air Refueling Squadron began flying the same aircraft as the 92d squadron and the other flying squadrons of the wing. For ten months during 2011, the squadron relocated its operations to
Grant County International Airport and
Spokane International Airportc while the Fairchild runway reconstruction project was taking place. Despite significant surge operations throughout the year, the unit was able to support all of its major taskings from the split locations. On 25 February 2014, the unit aircraft and aircrews returned from the
Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan, for the last time. Deployments to Manas had begun in 2005. ==Lineage==