349th Air Refueling Squadron

The 349th Air Refueling Squadron is a unit of the US Air Force, part of the 22d Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. It operates the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft conducting aerial refueling missions.

The squadron, was activated as the 349th Bombardment Squadron during World War II as a heavy bomber unit. It served in combat in the European Theater of Operations, where it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre with Palm for its actions. After V-E Day the squadron returned to the United States and was inactivated at the port of embarkation.

The squadron was briefly active in the reserve from 1947 to 1949, but does not appear to have been fully equipped or manned. It served between 1956 and 1992 with Strategic Air Command as a bombardment, strategic reconnaissance and air refueling unit.

Training in the United States
The squadron was activated as the 349th Bombardment Squadron at Orlando Army Air Base, Florida on 1 June 1942, one of the four original squadrons of the 100th Bombardment Group, It was intended to be equipped with Consolidated B-24 Liberators. The Army Air Forces (AAF) decided to concentrate heavy bomber training under Second Air Force, and before the end of June, the squadron moved to Pendleton Field, Oregon, and its intended equipment changed to Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. As a result, the squadron only began organizing in October 1942, after it had moved to Gowen Field, Idaho. The following month, it moved to Walla Walla Army Air Field, Washington, where it received its first operational aircraft and began training.

The 349th completed its training and departed Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska for the European Theater of Operations on 1 May 1943. The ground echelon sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth on 28 May, arriving at Greenock, Scotland on 3 June, while the air echelon engaged in additional training before departing via the northern ferry route to England about 21 May 1943.

Combat in Europe
The squadron established itself at its combat station, RAF Thorpe Abbotts, on 9 June 1943, flying its first combat mission on 25 June. Until the end of the war, the squadron was primarily employed in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Until January 1944, it concentrated its operations on airfields in France, and industrial targets and naval facilities in France and Germany. On 17 August 1943, it participated in an attack on a factory manufacturing Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters in Regensburg, Germany, which seriously disrupted production of that plane. Although the mission called for fighter escort, the fighter group assigned to protect the squadron's formation missed the rendezvous and the wing formation proceeded to the target unescorted. Enemy fighter opposition focused on the low "box", formed in part by the squadron. Ten of the 21 Flying Fortresses flown by the 100th Group were lost on this mission. Unknown to AAF intelligence at the time, the attack also destroyed almost all of the fuselage construction equipment for Germany's secret Me 262 jet fighter. Rather than returning to England, the unit turned south and recovered at bases in North Africa. For this action, the squadron was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC).

From January to May 1944, the 349th attacked airfields, industrial targets, marshalling yards, and missile sites in Western Europe. During Big Week, it participated in the concentrated attack on the German aircraft industry. In March, it conducted a series of long range attacks against Berlin, for which it was awarded a second DUC. The raid of 6 March was to be the costliest mission flown by Eighth Air Force during the war. German fighter controllers detected that the formation including the squadron was unprotected by fighter escorts and concentrated interceptor attacks on it. Twenty-three B-17s from the formation failed to return. Two days later, German fighters shot down the leader of the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing, and the 100th Group took the lead in another attack on Berlin. From the summer of 1944, the 349th concentrated on German oil production facilities.

The squadron was occasionally diverted from strategic bombing to perform interdiction and air support missions. It attacked bridges and gun positions to support Operation Overlord, the landings at Normandy in June 1944. In August and September it supported Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo, and bombed enemy positions in Brest. As Allied forces drove across Northern France toward the Siegfried Line in October and November, it attacked transportation and ground defenses. During the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 and January 1945, it attacked lines of communication and fortified villages in the Ardennes. It provided support for Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine in March 1945. The squadron was awarded the French Croix de Guerre with Palm for attacks on heavily defended sites and dropping supplies to the French Forces of the Interior.

The squadron flew its last mission on 20 April 1945. Following, V-E Day, the squadron was initially programmed to be part of the occupation forces in Germany, but that plan was cancelled in September, and between October and December, the squadron's planes were ferried back to the United States or transferred to other units in theater. Its remaining personnel returned to the United States in December and the squadron was inactivated at the Port of Embarkation on 19 December 1945.

"Bloody Hundredth"
Starting with the Regensburg mission of August 1943, the squadrons of the 100th Bombardment Group began suffering losses among the highest in VIII Bomber Command. On 8 October, it lost seven aircraft on a raid on Bremen, including its lead and deputy lead aircraft. Only two days later, it lost twelve aircraft on an attack on Münster, again including the lead aircraft. The only group plane returning from that mission had lost two engines and had two wounded on board. Its highest one day loss occurred on the 6 March 1944 attack on Berlin, when 15 bombers failed to return. On 11 September 1944, the Luftwaffe put up its heaviest opposition in months, destroying 11 of the group's bombers. On 31 December 1944, half the 1st Bombardment Division's losses consisted of a dozen 100th bombers. With a group authorization of 40 B-17s, it lost 177 planes to enemy action. It became a legend for these losses and was referred to as the "Bloody Hundredth."

Air Force reserve
The squadron was again activated in the reserve at Miami Army Air Field, Florida and assigned to the 100th Group on 29 May 1947. There, its training was supervised by the 473d AAF Base Unit (later the 2585th Air Force Reserve Training Center) of Air Defense Command (ADC). It was nominally a very heavy bomber squadron, but it does not appear the squadron was fully staffed and it was equipped only with training aircraft.

In 1948 Continental Air Command (ConAC) assumed responsibility for managing reserve and Air National Guard units from ADC. The 349th was inactivated when ConAC reorganized its reserve units under the wing base organization system in June 1949. The squadron's personnel and equipment, along with other reserve units at Miami were transferred to elements of the 435th Troop Carrier Wing.

Strategic Air Command
Reactivated under Strategic Air Command received new, swept wing Boeing B-47 Stratojets in 1956 which were designed to carry nuclear weapons and to penetrate Soviet air defenses with its high operational ceiling and near supersonic speed. The squadron flew the B-47 for about a decade when by the mid-1960s it had become obsolescent and vulnerable to new Soviet air defenses. The squadron began to send its Stratojets to Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis–Monthan AFB for retirement in 1965, the last being retired in 1966, one of the last B-47 Squadrons.

Redesignated as a strategic reconnaissance squadron from 1966–1976.

Air Refueling
The squadron flew air refueling in support of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird from 1976–1990 and provided cargo and aerial refueling support to combat units in Southwest Asia from, August 1990 – March 1991.

Lineage

 * Constituted as the 349th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 28 January 1942
 * Activated on 1 June 1942
 * Redesignated 349th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 20 August 1943
 * Inactivated on 1 December 1945


 * Redesignated 349th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 13 May 1947
 * Activated in the reserve on 29 May 1947
 * Inactivated on 27 June 1949


 * Redesignated 349th Bombardment Squadron, Medium on 1 August 1955
 * Activated on 1 January 1956
 * Redesignated 349th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron on 25 June 1966
 * Redesignated 349th Air Refueling Squadron, Heavy on 30 September 1976
 * Redesignated 349th Air Refueling Squadron on 1 September 1991
 * Inactivated on 1 June 1992


 * Activated on 1 January 1994

Assignments

 * 100th Bombardment Group, 1 June 1942 – 1 December 1945
 * 100th Bombardment Group, 29 May 1947 – 27 June 1949
 * 100th Bombardment Wing (later 100th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 100th Air Refueling Wing), 1 January 1956
 * 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, 15 March 1983
 * 9th Operations Group, 1 September 1991 – 1 June 1992
 * 22d Operations Group, 1 January 1994 – present

Stations

 * Orlando Army Air Base, Florida 1 June 1942
 * Barksdale Field, Louisiana, c. 18 June 1942
 * Pendleton Field, Oregon c. 26 June 1942
 * Gowen Field, Idaho, 28 August 1942
 * Walla Walla Army Air Field, Washington, c. 1 November 1942
 * Wendover Field, Utah, c. 30 November 1942
 * Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, c. 28 December 1942
 * Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska, c. 30 January – May 1943
 * RAF Thorpe Abbotts (AAF Station 139), England, 9 June 1943 – December 1945
 * Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, c. 20–21 December 1945


 * Miami Army Air Field (later Miami International Airport), Florida (1947–1949)
 * Portsmouth Air Force Base (later Pease Air Force Base), New Hampshire, 1 January 1956 – 30 April 1966 (deployed to RAF Brize Norton, England 4 January–1 April 1958)
 * Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, 25 June 1966 – 1 July 1976
 * Beale Air Force Base, California, 25 January 1982
 * McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, 1 January 1994 – present)

Aircraft

 * Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (1942–1945)
 * North American AT-6 Texan (1947–1949)
 * Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator (1947–1949)
 * Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan (1947–1949)
 * Boeing B-47 Stratojet (1956–1966)
 * Lockheed U-2 (1966–1976)
 * Lockheed WU-2 (1966–1976)
 * Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker (1976–1992, 1994 – present)