The 17th Attack Squadron is a squadron of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. It is assigned to the 432d Wing, and stationed at Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada. The 17th is equipped with the

MQ-9 Reaper The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, one component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS)) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomi ...

Overview

The 17th conducts intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operating the flies

remotely piloted aircraft.

History

World War II

Constituted as 17 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on 14 Jul 1942. Activated on 23 Jul 1942 with Lightning P-38/F-5 reconnaissance aircraft at Colorado Springs AAB, CO. Redesignated as: 17 Photographic Squadron (Light) on 6 Feb 1943; 17 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on 13 Nov 1943. Deployed to the South Pacific Area, assigned to

Thirteenth Air Force The Thirteenth Expeditionary Air Force (13 EAF) is a provisional numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam on the island of Oahu, ...

. Flew hazardous unarmed reconnaissance missions over enemy-held territory in

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second- ...

; New Guinea; Northern

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

;

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

; Western Pacific;

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

;

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

; Southern Philippines; Central Burma and southeast China. Inactivated in the Philippines, 19 April 1946. Redesignated as 17 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Photo-Jet on 1 Apr 1951. Activated on 2 Apr 1951 at Shaw AFB,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. Redesignated as 17 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron on 1 Oct 1966. Inactivated 1 January 1979. Redesignated as 17 Reconnaissance Squadron on 4 Mar 2002. Activated on 8 March 2002 at Indian Springs AFAF (later, Creech AFB), NV. Redesignated as 17 Attack Squadron on 15 May 2016.

Cold War reconnaissance

Aactivated at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina in 1951 as a photo-reconnaissance training squadron. Equipped with several reconnaissance aircraft during the 1950s, deploying to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

in 1959 with the McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo. Operated from France until 1966, moving to RAF Upper Heyford, England. Remained in England until 1970, moved to Zweibrucken AB, West Germany and re-equipped with McDonnell RF-4C Phantom II aircraft. Remained at

Zweibrücken Air Base Zweibrücken Air Base was a NATO military air base in West Germany . It was located SSW of Kaiserslautern and SE of Zweibrücken. It was assigned to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) during ...

until 1 January 1979.

Unmanned vehicle operations

The squadron was activated at what was then known as Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field (now Creech Air Force Base) on 8 March 2002, flying the

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the Predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...

. Added the larger and more heavily armed

in 2006. According to the 2014 documentary film '' Drone'', since 2002 the squadron had been working for the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

as "customer", carrying out armed missions in Pakistan.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 17th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on 14 July 1942 : Activated on 23 July 1942 : Redesignated 17th Photographic Squadron (Light) on 6 February 1943 : Redesignated 17th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on 13 November 1943 : Inactivated on 19 April 1946 * Redesignated 17th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, Photo-Jet on 1 April 1951 : Activated on 2 April 1951 : Redesignated 17th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron on 1 October 1966 : Inactivated 1 January 1979 * Redesignated 17th Reconnaissance Squadron on 4 March 2002 : Activated on 8 March 2002 * Redesignated 17th Attack Squadron on 15 May 2016 :

Assignments

* 4th Photographic Group (later 4th Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping Group, 4th Photographic Group 4th Reconnaissance Group), 23 July 1942 *

, 5 December 1945 * XIII Fighter Command, 10 December 1945 * 85th Fighter Wing; 1 February 1946 * Pacific Air Command, U. S. Army, 1–19 April 1946 * 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 2 April 1951 * 432d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 8 February 1958 * 66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 10 May 1959 * 86th Tactical Fighter Wing, 12 January 1970 * 26th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 31 January 1973 – 1 January 1979 * 57th Operations Group, 8 March 2002 – 1 May 2007 * 432d Operations Group, 1 May 2007 * 732d Operations Group, 10 September 2012 – present

Stations

* Colorado Springs Army Air Base, Colorado, 23 July – 24 October 1942 * Camp Deptha,

Nouméa Nouméa () is the capital and largest city of the French Sui generis collectivity, special collectivity of New Caledonia and is also the largest Francophone city in Oceania. It is situated on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main i ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, 2 December 1942 * Henderson Field (Guadalcanal), Guadalcanal,

, 16 January 1943 : Detachment operated from: Munda Airfield,

New Georgia New Georgia, with an area of , is the largest of the islands in Western Province (Solomon Islands), Western Province, Solomon Islands, and the List of islands by area, 203rd-largest island in the world. Since July 1978, the island has been par ...

, Solomon Islands, c. 13 October 1943 – 31 January 1944, 9 March – 1 April 1944 : Detachment operated from: Buka Airfield, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, c. 11 December 1943 – February 1945 : Detachment operated from: Kornasoren (Yebrurro) Airfield, Noemfoor, Schouten Islands, 8–23 October 1944 : Detachment operated from: Sansapor Airfield, Netherlands East Indies, 13 October – 4 November 1944 * Wama Airfield, Morotai, Netherlands East Indies, 4 November 1944 : Detachment operated from: Dulag Airfield,

, Philippines, 9 February–October 1945 * Puerto Princesa Airfield,

Palawan Palawan (, ), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...

, Philippines, 11 May 1945 – 19 April 1946 * Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, 2 April 1951 – 10 May 1959 * Laon-Couvron Air Base, France, 10 May 1959 * RAF Upper Heyford, England, September 1966 * Zweibrücken Air Base, Germany, 12 January 1970 – 1 January 1979 * Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field (later Creech Air Force Base), Nevada, 8 March 2002 – present

Aircraft

* Lockheed P-38 Lightning, 1942–1946 * North American B-25 Mitchell, 1944–1946 * North American F-6 Mustang, 1946 * Lockheed RF-80 Shooting Star, 1951–1955 * Republic RF-84F Thunderflash, 1954–1958 * McDonnell RF-101C Voodoo, 1957–1969 * McDonnell RF-4C Phantom II, 1969–1978 * MQ-1 Predator, 2002–2018 *

, 2006–present

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * *

External links

{{USAAF 13th Air Force World War II 1 0017 Indian Springs, Nevada

017 017 may refer to: * DOL-017, GameCube console * '' Global Underground 017'', DJ mix album * Road FC 017, 2014 Mixed Martial Arts event * Swift 017.n, racing car * Tyrrell 017, Formula One racing car See also * 17 (disambiguation) Seventeen o ...