203d Air Refueling Squadron
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The 203rd Air Refueling Squadron (203 ARS) is a unit of the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing located at
Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam (JBPHH) is a United States military base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is Joint Base, an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Hickam Air Force Base and the United States Navy's Naval Station Pearl ...
, Honolulu, Hawaii. The 203rd ARS is equipped with the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker.


Overview

The 203rd Air Refueling Squadron is a unit of the 154th Wing. It is an associate Unit with the 96th Air Refueling Squadron at
Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam (JBPHH) is a United States military base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is Joint Base, an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Hickam Air Force Base and the United States Navy's Naval Station Pearl ...
. The squadron flies the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, which provides the core aerial-refueling capability for the Air Force and has been in this role for more than 50 years. It also provides aerial-refueling support to Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps and allied-nation aircraft. The KC-135 is also capable of transporting litter and ambulatory patients using patient support pallets during aeromedical evacuations.


History

Established in 1993 to provide the Hawaii Air National Guard an air refueling mission and to establish an air refueling capability over the middle
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
. It began as a small 4 aircraft squadron until 1995 when it was authorized to grow to 8 aircraft and increased personnel. From late February to April 1998, four KC-135R aircraft from the 203rd, and over 200 154th Wing maintenance and support guard members deployed to Istres Air Base, France, to participate in Operation Deliberate Forge. As real world hostilities began, the focus turned to Operation Allied Force. Seventy combat sorties were flown with a 100 percent mission success rate and zero ground/air mishaps or injuries, and over 3.9 million pounds of fuel were transferred to U.S. and NATO aircraft. When political and military tensions built up in Southwest Asia, a KC-135R and guard members from the Squadron and 154th Logistics Group were deployed to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, to support Operation Phoenix Scorpion in November 1998. The unit took part in exercise RIMPAC 2000, taking place in June 2000. In February 2001, a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft from the squadron provided assistance to the U.S. Department of Defense humanitarian aid airlift to earthquake stricken India. A 203rd KC-135 tanker took off from
Hickam Air Force Base Hickam Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) United States Air Force installation, installation, named in honor of aviation pioneer Lieutenant Colonel (United States), Lieutenant Colonel Horace Meek Hickam. The installation merged ...
to refuel the first India-bound
Lockheed C-5 Galaxy The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force (USAF) with a heavy ...
cargo aircraft laden with relief supplies. The U.S. Air Force C-5 aircraft had departed
Travis Air Force Base Travis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base under the operational control of Air Mobility Command (AMC), located three miles (5 Kilometre, km) east of the central business district of the city of Fairfield, California, Fairfield, i ...
, California, loaded with heavy equipment and other relief supplies needed in the disaster areas. On 4 February 2003, two squadron KC-135R Stratotankers from the squadron refueled two Air Combat Command
Rockwell B-1B Lancer The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It has been nicknamed the "Bone" (from "B-One"). , it is one of the United States Air Force's three strategic bombers, along with th ...
s over the Pacific Ocean while the bombers finished up a 19-hour, more than 15,000-mile, global power mission.


Lineage

* Constituted as the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron and allotted to the Air National Guard in 1993 : Received federal recognition and activated on 16 January 1993


Assignments

* 154th Group, 16 January 1993 * 154th Operations Group, 1 January 1994 – present


Stations

* Hickam Air Force Base (later
Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam (JBPHH) is a United States military base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is Joint Base, an amalgamation of the United States Air Force's Hickam Air Force Base and the United States Navy's Naval Station Pearl ...
), 16 January 1993 – present


Aircraft

* Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, 1993 – present


References


Notes

; Explanatory notes ; Citations


Bibliography

* Rogers, B. (2006). United States Air Force Unit Designations Since 1978.


External links


154th Wing units webpage


{{Hawaii Squadrons of the United States Air National Guard Air refueling squadrons of the United States Air Force Military units and formations in Hawaii