The
618th Bombardment Squadron was activated in June 1943 at
MacDill Field, Florida, The 477th group was reactivated in January 1944 at
Selfridge Field, Michigan as the "first colored bombardment group in the
Army Air Forces" with personnel drawn from Selfridge and from
Tuskegee Army Air Field, Alabama. It was the second combat group to be activated with African American personnel and would be the only African-American bombardment group. The group moved to
Godman Field, Kentucky, where the 618th was activated in May. Although designated a "colored" squadron, some officers, including the squadron leadership were white. The initial commander of the 477th group enforced racial segregation on the posts where the squadron was stationed. The squadron's members were involved in the civil rights action referred to as the
Freeman Field Mutiny; the "mutiny" came about when African-American aviators became outraged enough by
racial segregation in the military that they resorted to mass insistence that military regulations prohibiting discrimination be enforced. The Freeman Field Mutiny was a crucial event in the African-American struggle for equal civil rights. The 618th was inactivated in October 1945 without deploying to a combat zone after the 477th became a composite group formed of the
99th Fighter Squadron,
617th Bombardment Squadron and 618th Bombardment Squadron. At this time, Colonel
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., a black officer, assumed command of the group. The squadron's inactivation reduced the group to a single fighter squadron and a single bombardment squadron. ==Lineage==