World War II The
squadron traces its lineage to the 24th Air Corps Interceptor Control Squadron, formed in October 1941 at
Hamilton Field, California. It was the director unit for the
24th Pursuit Group, which was formed simultaneously at
Clark Field, Philippines, as the headquarters for
pursuit squadrons of the
Philippine Department Air Force. After completing training, the squadron sailed for the Philippines on the
USAT President Garfield on 6 December 1941. After the following day's Japanese attacks on
Pearl Harbor and
Clark Field, the
President Garfield returned to port on 10 December and the squadron returned to Hamilton Field. Although nominally assigned to the 24th Group from January to October 1942, the squadron served with
air defense forces on the Pacific coast until it was disbanded on 31 March 1944, when the
Army Air Forces converted its units in the United States from rigid table-of-organization units to more flexible base units. Its personnel and equipment were transferred to the 411th AAF Base Unit (Fighter Wing) at
Berkeley, California.
Special operations From 1977 to 1981, the 24th Special Tactics Squadron was called Brand X. Then it was called Det 1 MACOS (Detachment One, Military Airlift Command Operations Staff). In 1983, it was renamed Det 4 NAFCOS (Detachment Four, Numbered Air Force Combat Operations Staff). In 1987, it became 1724th Combat Control Squadron, and later in 1987, the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron. In 1992, it was renamed the 24th Special Tactics Squadron. In 1989, the 1724th Special Tactics Squadron participated in the
United States invasion of Panama. Combat Controller (CCT) SSgt. Jeffrey W. Bray received the Silver Star for coordinating helicopter attack runs throughout the night around their positions. In September 2000, the 24th STS and the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron took part in the annual Canadian military exercise, Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX). This was the first time Special Tactics units took part in SAREX. The squadron was heavily involved in combat operations in
Iraq and
Afghanistan, where the unit was part of the JSOC groupings
Task Force 121,
Task Force 6-26 and
Task Force 145. During
Operation Rhino, two 24th STS operators were among the members of Task Force Sword that established a forward arming and refueling point (FARP) at Dalbandin, on the border with
Pakistan. On November 13, an eight-man 24th STS element, supporting thirty-two Rangers from B Co., 3rd Ranger Battalion, executed a combat jump to seize a desert landing strip (LZ Bastogne). It was 24th STS's second combat jump of the war. In 2003, members of the unit made two combat jumps in the initial phases of the Iraq War alongside the
3rd Ranger Battalion. The first was on 24 March 2003 near the
Syrian border in the Iraqi town of
Al Qaim, where they secured a small desert landing strip to allow follow-on coalition forces into the area. The second combat jump was two days later near
Haditha, Iraq, where they secured the
Haditha Dam. On 8 April 2003, Combat Controller Scott Sather, a member of the 24th STS, became the first airman killed in combat in
Operation Iraqi Freedom, near
Tikrit, Iraq. He was attached to a small team from the
Regimental Reconnaissance Company. The RRD team and Sather were operating alongside
Delta Force, under Lieutenant Colonel Pete Blaber, west of
Baghdad. They were tasked with deceiving the Iraqi army into believing the main U.S. invasion was coming from the west in order to prevent
Saddam Hussein from escaping into Syria.
Sather Air Base was named after him. The 24th STS was a part of JSOC's
Task Force 145 which was a provisional grouping charged with hunting down high-value al-Qaeda and Iraqi leaders, including
Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in June 2006. In 2011, the squadron lost three members – PJs John Brown and Daniel Zerbe and CCT Andrew Harvell – when the Chinook in which they were flying was
shot down in Afghanistan. To honor them, 18 members of AFSOC marched 800 miles from
Lackland Air Force Base,
San Antonio, Texas to
Hurlburt Field, Florida. ==Notable members==