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 ...

's 301st Intelligence Squadron is an intelligence unit located at

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGra ...

, Alaska. The squadron's first predecessor was organized in 1942 as the 138th Signal Radio Intelligence Company, a

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

unit. The company served in the

Southwest Pacific Theater The South West Pacific theatre, during World War II, was a major theatre of the war between the Allies and the Axis. It included the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (except for Sumatra), Borneo, Australia, its mandate Territory of New Guin ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, then moved to Japan to join the occupation forces. Redesignated 1st Radio Squadron, Mobile in 1946, the unit transferred from the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

to the

in 1949 and served in Japan until inactivation in May 1955. The squadron's other predecessor was organized at

Misawa Air Base is an air base of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF), List of United States Air Force installations, the United States Air Force, and the United States Navy located in Misawa, Aomori, Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, Aomori, in the northern p ...

, Japan in 1978 as the 6920th Security Squadron. In October 1993, the two units were consolidated as the 301st. It continued to serve at Misawa until June 2014, when it moved to its present location.

Mission

The squadron is a partner to the

381st Intelligence Squadron The United States Air Force's 381st Intelligence Squadron is an intelligence unit located at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. The unit operated the last operational AN/FLR-9 Circularly Disposed Antenna Array (CDAA), also known as an "El ...

at the

Alaska Mission Operations Center The Alaska Mission Operations Center (AMOC) is a U.S. National Security Agency facility located on Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. The facility is considered one of two " consolidated intelligence centers" and is supported by ...

. The unit's mission is to collect, process, analyze, and report

on adversary operations, capabilities, and intentions. Additionally, unit personnel provide tactical analytic support to combat units and conduct communications, maintenance, and administrative actions supporting site operations.

History

World War II

The first predecessor of the squadron was activated in February 1942 as the 138th Signal Intelligence Company at

Fort George Wright Fort George Wright is a land area in the northwest United States, located in Spokane, Washington's West Hills neighborhood. It is named after General George Wright, who had been stationed in the area. History In 1895, local residents purchas ...

, Washington. It received it initial cadre on 25 February drawing from the 404th Signal Company, Aviation; 434th Signal Maintenance Company, Aviation and 39th Signal Platoon, Air Base. However, it was April before a substantial number of people were assigned to the company. The company continued training at Fort Wright until May 1943, when they departed for shipment to the Southwest Pacific, Staging through

Fort Dix Fort Dix, the common name for the Army Support Activity (ASA) located at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst, is a United States Army post. It is located south-southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix is under the jurisdiction of the Air Fo ...

, New Jersey. On 13 May, the company boarded the for a monthlong shipment through the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, Australia. In August 1942, the squadron moved forward to

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

, New Guinea to begin operations. The squadron continued radio intercept operations of Japanese radio transmissions until

VJ Day Victory over Japan Day (also known as V-J Day, Victory in the Pacific Day, or V-P Day) is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect bringing the war to an end. The term has been applied to both of the days on wh ...

. Following the war, the unit was transferred from the

Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army responsible for creating and managing communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860 by ...

to the Air Corps and redesignated the 1st Radio Squadron. However, it remained part of

Army Security Agency The United States Army Security Agency (ASA) was the United States Army, United States Army's signals intelligence branch from 1945 to 1977. The Latin motto of the Army Security Agency was ''Semper Vigilis'' (Vigilant Always), which echoes the ...

for more than a year after the

became independent, not transferring to

United States Air Force Security Service Initially established as the United States Air Force, Air Force (USAF) Security Group in June, 1948, the USAF Security Service (USAFSS) was activated as a major command on 20 October 1948. (For redesignations, see #Successor_units, Successor un ...

until 1 February 1949.

Korean War

The squadron remained in Japan after the war with the mission of monitoring Soviet air and

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

signals. When the North Koreans crossed the 38th parallel and invaded in June 1950, the squadron's commander ordered its vehicles to be laagered on the

Johnson Air Base is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) base located in the city of Sayama, Saitama, Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, north of western Tokyo, Japan. It was the airfield for the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Academy until 1945, when it became Joh ...

football field in case of a parachute attack on Japan. A detachment of the squadron moved to Korea on 15 July 1950. However

Fifth Air Force The Fifth Air Force (5 AF) is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces (PACAF). It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan. It is the U.S. Air Force's oldest continuously serving Numbered Air Force. The organ ...

had established its own

ad hoc ''Ad hoc'' is a List of Latin phrases, Latin phrase meaning literally for this. In English language, English, it typically signifies a solution designed for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a Generalization, generalized solution ...

signals intelligence party near

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, which commandeered the 1st Squadron's equipment. However, additional mobile radio intercept detachments began arriving before the end of the year. In March 1951, squadron operators in Japan began picking up voice communications in Russian between ground controllers and

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate s ...

fighters. By April, the squadron had established a mobile van in central Korea, which passed information on MiGs to the Fifth Air Force tactical air control center, which passed it on to American

North American F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

s, disguising the information to make it appear that it was coming from radar ground stations, even though the radio intercept van could provide warning of Soviet aircraft movements well beyond the range of American radars. Separate stations were established for intercepting enemy

morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...

signals dealing with both enemy and friendly traffic. After September 1951, these operations were consolidated in Seoul. The information provided by squadron operators has been credited as the major factor in the increased kill ratio of Sabre pilots over the MiG-15 in Korea starting in mid-1951, especially in view of analysis that indicated that by the fall of 1952 90% of MiG pilots in Korea were Russians. In January 1951, the squadron moved to Misawa Air Base, Japan, where one of the first Elephant Cage high frequency

direction finding Direction finding (DF), radio direction finding (RDF), or radiogoniometry is the use of radio waves to determine the direction to a radio source. The source may be a cooperating radio transmitter or may be an inadvertent source, a naturall ...

antenna assemblies was located. The squadron was inactivated in May 1955, and its mission, personnel and equipment transferred to the 6921st Radio Squadron, Mobile.

6920th Electronic Security Group

The second squadron antecedent was activated as the 6920th Security Squadron at

, Japan in October 1978. When USAF Security Service became Electronic Security Command, the squadron was expanded to

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

size as the 6920th Electronic Security Group. In October 1992, the unit became one of the operational components, with the

Naval Security Group The Naval Security Group (NAVSECGRU) was an organization within the United States Navy, tasked with intelligence gathering and denial of intelligence to adversaries. A large part of this is signals intelligence gathering, cryptology and informatio ...

Activity, Misawa, a Marine company, and the 750th Military Intelligence Company, in the Misawa Cryptologic Operations Center.

301st Intelligence Squadron

In October 1993, the 1st Radio Squadron (which had been disbanded in 1985), was reconstituted and consolidated with the 6920th Group and the consolidated squadron was named the 301st Intelligence Squadron. The squadron mission at Misawa was to process time-critical combat information for unified and specified commands and the National Command Authorities. It conducted satellite communications processing and reporting. The 301st provided sensitive communications support to aircraft. It operated and maintained $500,000,000 of electronic equipment. After the massive

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

and devastating earthquake measuring 9.0 on the

Richter Scale The Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and pr ...

struck the coast of Japan in 2011, Airmen of the 301st devoted countless hours alongside other Americans and Japanese during Operation Tomodachi by assisting with clean-up and restoration efforts throughout Japan. In June 2014, as the Misawa operations center closed and intelligence personnel there were reduced by more than 500 people, the squadron moved from Misawa to

when the intelligence center at Misawa closed.

Lineage

; 1st Radio Squadron, Mobile * Constituted as the 138th Signal Radio Intelligence Company on 7 February 1942 * Activated on 14 February 1942 * Redesignated 138th Signal Radio Intelligence Company, Aviation on 29 October 1943 * Redesignated 1st Radio Squadron, Mobile (J)Although only the letter J was included in the unit designation, this indicated the squadron was trained in Japanese language intercepts. on 29 February 1944 * Redesignated 1st Radio Squadron, Mobile on 14 November 1946 : Inactivated on 8 May 1955 * Disbanded on 15 June 1983. * Reconstituted on 1 October 1993 and consolidated with the 6920th Electronic Security Group as the 301st Intelligence Squadron ; 6920th Electronic Security Group * Designated as the 6920th Security Squadron on 1 October 1978 and activated * Redesignated 6920th Electronic Security Group on 1 August 1979 * Consolidated with the 1st Radio Squadron, Mobile as the 301st Intelligence Squadron ; 301st Intelligence Squadron * Consolidated unit designated 301st Intelligence Squadron 1 October 1993 – present

Assignments

Second Air Force The Second Air Force (2 AF; ''2d Air Force'' in 1942) is a USAF numbered air force responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and non-flying officers. In World War II the CONUS unit defended ...

, 14 February 1942 *

, 12 June 1943 * Army Security Agency, Pacific, 4 January 1946 (attached to Fifth Air Force after 9 February 1946) * United States Air Force Security Service, 1 February 1949 (remained attached to Fifth Air Force,

35th Fighter Wing The 35th Fighter Wing is an air combat unit of the United States Air Force and the host unit at Misawa Air Base, Japan. The wing (military aviation unit), wing is part of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF)'s Fifth Air Force. The wing was first activat ...

(later 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing), 1 July 1949, 3d Bombardment Wing, 1 April 1950; 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, 14 August 1950; 6162d Air Base Wing, 1 December 1950; 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing after 25 May 1951) * 6920 Security Group (later 6920 Security Wing), 16 February 1952 – 8 May 1955 (remained attached to 35th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, 6016th Air Base Wing, 28 January 1953;

49th Fighter-Bomber Wing 49 (forty-nine) is the natural number following 48 and preceding 50. In mathematics Forty-nine is the square of the prime number seven and hence the fourth non-unitary square prime of the form ''p''2. Both of its digits are square numbers, 4 be ...

, 18 November 1953 – 8 May 1955) * United States Air Force Security Service (later Electronic Security Command), 1 Oct 1978-c. Aug 1979 (attached to 6112th Air Base Wing) *

Electronic Security, Pacific The United States Air Force's 692nd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group is an intelligence unit located at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, performing operations as part of the Kunia Regional Security Operations Center (KRSOC). Mission The mi ...

(later Pacific Electronic Security Division, 692d Intelligence Wing, 692d Intelligence Group), 30 September 1980 *

373d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group 373rd or 373d may refer to: *373d Fighter Group, inactive United States Army Air Force unit *373d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group (ISRG), an Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency unit located at Misawa A ...

, 7 September 2000 – present

Stations

* Fort George Wright, Washington, 14 February 1942 – 5 May 1943 * Brisbane, Australia, 15 June 1943 * Port Moresby, New Guinea, by c. 5 August 1943 *

Nadzab Nadzab Village is in the Markham Valley, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea on the Highlands Highway. Administratively, it is located in Gabsongkeg ward of Wampar Rural LLG. The Nadzab Airport is located East of Nadzab Village and was the site ...

, New Guinea, by 21 February 1944 *

Biak Biak is the main island of Biak Archipelago located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua (province), Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak has many atolls, reefs, and corals. The largest popula ...

, New Guinea, September 1944 *

Clark Field Clark is an English language surname with historical links to England, Scotland, and Ireland, ultimately derived from the Latin ''clericus'' meaning "scribe", "secretary" or a scholar within a religious order, referring to someone who was educated ...

, Philippines, 31 May 1945 *

Yokota Air Base , is a Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) and United States Air Force (USAF) base in the Tama Area, or Western Tokyo. It occupies portions of Akishima, Fussa, Hamura, Mizuho, Musashimurayama, and Tachikawa. The base houses 14,000 pers ...

, Japan, 20 December 1945 * Irumagawa Air Base (later Johnson Air Base), Japan, by 1 February 1946 * Misawa Air Base, Japan, 26 January 1953 – 8 May 1955 * Misawa Air Base, Japan, 1 October 1978 * Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, 1 July 2014 – present

Awards and campaigns

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* *

External links

* * * {{USAAF 5th Air Force World War II Intelligence squadrons of the United States Air Force Military units and formations in Alaska Military units and formations of the United States in the Cold War Military units and formations established in 1942 1942 establishments in Washington (state)