The 63d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive

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 ...

unit that was last assigned to the

43rd Bombardment Wing The 43rd Airlift Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit last stationed at Pope Field, part of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it was inactivated in March 2011. The wing performed en route operations support at Pope Field to include ...

Little Rock Air Force Base Little Rock Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately northeast of Little Rock, Arkansas. The facility covers 6,217 acres (2,516 ha) with a resident population of over 3,300 and working population of approximate ...

, Arkansas, where it was inactivated on 31 January 1970. The squadron was first activated in January 1941, as one of the original squadrons of the

43rd Bombardment Group The 43rd Air Mobility Operations Group is an active duty air mobility unit aPope Army Airfield(formerly Pope AFB), Fort Bragg, North Carolina and is part of the Air Mobility Command (AMC) under the USAF Expeditionary Center. The unit is compose ...

. Following the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

, the squadron participated in

antisubmarine Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations a ...

patrols until January 1942, when it moved to Australia and 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 ...

. It moved forward with US forces through New Guinea and the Philippines, moving to

Ie Shima , previously romanized in English as Ie Shima, is an island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, lying a few kilometers off the Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa Island. The island measures in circumference and covers . As of December 2012 the island had ...

shortly before

V-J 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 ...

for operations against Japan. It earned two

Distinguished Unit Citation The Presidential Unit Citation (PUC), originally called the Distinguished Unit Citation, is awarded to units of the uniformed services of the United States, and those of allied countries, for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed e ...

s and a

Philippine Presidential Unit Citation The Philippine Presidential Unit citation BadgeThe AFP Adjutant General, ''Awards and Decorations Handbook'', 1997, OTAG, p. 65. is a unit decoration of the Republic of the Philippines. It has been awarded to certain units of the United States ...

for combat operations. The squadron was inactivated in the Philippines in April 1946. The squadron was activated again in October 1946, when it assumed the resources of another unit. It operated propeller-driven

Boeing B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the Bo ...

es and

Boeing B-50 Superfortress The Boeing B-50 Superfortress is a retired American strategic bomber. A post–World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, it was fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller tail fin ...

es until 1954, when it upgraded to the jet

Boeing B-47 Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long- range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft ...

. In 1960, the squadron moved to

Carswell Air Force Base Carswell Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force (USAF) base, located northwest of Fort Worth, Texas. For most of its operational lifetime, the base's mission was to train and support heavy strategic bombing groups and wings. Carswe ...

, Texas, where it became one of the Air Force's first supersonic

Convair B-58 Hustler The Convair B-58 Hustler, designed and produced by American aircraft manufacturer Convair, was the first operational bomber capable of Mach 2 flight. The B-58 was developed during the 1950s for the United States Air Force (USAF) Strategic Air ...

units. It continued to operate the Hustler until it was inactivated.

History

World War II

Initial organization and training

The squadron was first activated at

Langley Field Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Langley Wakeman Collyer (1885–1947), one ...

, Virginia as one of the original four squadrons of the

43d Bombardment Group The Poor Relief Act 1601 ( 43 Eliz. 1. c. 2) was an act of the Parliament of England. The act, popularly known as the Elizabethan Poor Law, the "43rd Elizabeth", or the "Old Poor Law", was passed in 1601 and created a poor law system for Engl ...

, in the buildup of the United States military forces prior to the American entry into

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 ...

. It was equipped with a variety of aircraft, not only the

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

that it would fly in combat, but also

Douglas B-18 Bolo The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American twin-engined medium bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force (as the Digby) during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was developed by the Douglas Airc ...

s and

North American B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allies of World War ...

s for training. The squadron moved to Army Air Base Bangor, Maine at the end of August. Following the Japanese

, the squadron conducted

patrols off the Atlantic coast, with the LB-30 export version of the

Consolidated B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models desi ...

until January 1942, when it began moving to reinforce American forces in the

.Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 99-101

Combat in the Pacific

The squadron reached Australia via

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in March 1942. It was originally equipped with B-17s for combat operations. The squadron operated from bases in Australia until January 1943, when it moved to New Guinea. Between May and September 1942 the squadron replaced its B-17s with

s, believed to be more suited to the long ranges of many Pacific missions.''See'' It attacked Japanese shipping in the Netherlands East Indies and the Bismarck Archipelago. It experimented with

skip bombing Skip bombing was a low-level bombing technique independently developed by several of the combatant nations in World War II, notably Italy, Australia, Britain, Soviet Union and the United States. It allows an aircraft to attack shipping by skippi ...

and used this technique during the

Battle of the Bismarck Sea The Battle of the Bismarck Sea (2–4 March 1943) took place in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II when aircraft of the U.S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) attacked a Japanese convoy carrying tro ...

in March 1943. During this battle, it made repeated attacks against an enemy convoy bringing reinforcements to Japanese forces in New Guinea. For this action, the squadron was awarded a

. During this period, the squadron also provided

air support Close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as Strafing, strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS r ...

for ground forces in New Guinea. It attacked

airfield An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

s and enemy installations in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago,

Celebes Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Archi ...

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coa ...

Yap Yap (, sometimes written as , or ) traditionally refers to an island group located in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean, a part of Yap State. The name "Yap" in recent years has come to also refer to the state within the Federate ...

Palau Palau, officially the Republic of Palau, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the western Pacific Ocean. The Republic of Palau consists of approximately 340 islands and is the western part of the Caroline Islands ...

, and the southern Philippines. 63rd Bombardment Squadron - B-24 Liberator

In November 1944 the squadron moved to the Philippines, helping the ground campaign on

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 ...

as well as conducting bombing missions against airfields, industrial installations and enemy installations in China and Formosa. In July 1945 it moved to

Ie Shima Airfield is a training facility, managed by the United States Marine Corps and a former World War II airfield complex on Ie Shima, an island located off the northwest coast of Okinawa Island in the East China Sea. The airfield as such was inactivated ...

, from which it flew missions over Japan, attacking railroads and airfields, as well as shipping in the

Seto Inland Sea The , sometimes shortened to the Inland Sea, is the body of water separating Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu, three of the four main islands of Japan. It serves as a waterway connecting the Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan. It connects to Osaka Ba ...

until

. After ceasing operations, the squadron sent its aircraft to the Philippines for reclamation and relocated to

Fort William McKinley Fort Andres Bonifacio (formerly Fort William McKinley) is the site of the national headquarters of the Philippine Army (Headquarters Philippine Army or HPA) located in Taguig, Philippines. The camp is named after Andres Bonifacio, the revolutio ...

as a paper unit. It was finally inactivated in April 1946.

Strategic Air Command operations

Reactivated under

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile compon ...

at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona on 1 October 1946 and, along with the other squadrons of the 43rd Group, absorbed the personnel and

es of the 40th and 444th Bombardment Groups, which were simultaneously inactivated. One of the first operational B-29 squadrons of SAC, the squadron was not fully manned or equipped until 1948. It trained for strategic bombardment missions during the postwar years; began upgrading to the improved

, an advanced version of the B-29 in 1948. The B-50 gave the unit the capability to carry heavy loads of conventional weapons faster and farther as well as being designed for atomic bomb missions if necessary. By 1951, the emergence of the Soviet

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 ...

interceptor in the skies of North Korea signaled the end of the propeller-driven B-50 as a first-line strategic bomber. It replaced them with new

Boeing B-47E Stratojet The Boeing B-47 Stratojet (Boeing company designation Model 450) is a retired American long-range, six-engined, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. ...

swept-wing medium bombers in 1954, capable of flying at high subsonic speeds and primarily designed for penetrating the airspace of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. In the late 1950s, the B-47 was considered to be reaching obsolescence, and was being phased out of SAC's strategic arsenal. In preparation for receiving the new

supersonic medium bomber, sending the last of its B-47s to the

Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (309th AMARG),Offici ...

(AMARC) in early 1960.

B-58 operations

The squadron moved to

without personnel or equipment on 15 April 1960, and was not manned or equipped until August.Ravenstein, pp. 70-73 Then it took over personnel and equipment from the 3958th Combat Crew Training Squadron and the 6592d Test Squadron, which were discontinued. The squadron immediately began training crews on the

. The squadron was equipped with experimental and training models of the Hustler, along with Convair TF-102 Delta Daggers, to perform Category II and III evaluations of the new bomber, along with its training responsibilities. The evaluations of the Hustler ended in 1962. At the beginning of the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

in October 1962, Only six B-58s in the entire SAC inventory were on alert. Even these aircraft were "second cycle" (follow on) sorties. Crew training was suspended, and the squadron, along with SAC's other B-58 squadrons, began placing its bombers on alert. By the first week of November, 84 B-58s were standing nuclear alert, and as SAC redeployed its

Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave ...

s, 20 of these were "first cycle"

sortie A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint. The term originated in siege warf ...

s.The availability of KC-135s to refuel the B-58s was the main factor in relegating them to the second cycle of the war plan. KC-135s were primarily dedicated to refueling B-52s. ''See'' Kipp ''et al.'' p. 30 and following for SAC bomber actions during the Cuban Crisis. Within a short time, this grew to 41 bombers. By 20 November, SAC resumed its normal alert posture, and half the squadron's aircraft were kept on alert. In September 1964, the 43d Wing and the squadron moved to

, Arkansas. In December 1965,

Robert S. McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...

Secretary of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

announced a phaseout program that would further reduce SAC's bomber force. This program called for the mid-1971 retirement of all B-58s and some

Boeing B-52 Stratofortress The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic aircraft, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the ...

models. With the removal of the B-58 from SAC's bomber force, the squadron was inactivated at the end of January 1970.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 63d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 20 November 1940 : Activated on 15 January 1941 : Redesignated 63d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 21 September 1943 : Inactivated on 29 April 1946 * Redesignated 63d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy and activated, on 1 October 1946 : Redesignated 63d Bombardment Squadron, Medium on 2 July 1948 : Inactivated 31 January 1970Lineage, assignments, stations and aircraft through March 1963 in Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 241The squadron is not related to the Bombardment Squadron, Provisional, 63d that was activated on 15 June 1972 at

Andersen Air Force Base Andersen Air Force Base (Andersen AFB, AAFB) is a United States Air Force base located primarily within the village of Yigo in the United States territory of Guam. The host unit at Andersen AFB is the 36th Wing (36 WG), assigned to the Pacif ...

, Guam for operational control of deployed

es and assigned to the Strategic Wing, Provisional, 72nd until 15 November 1973, then attached to the 43rd Strategic Wing until it was discontinued on 30 June 1975.

Assignments

* 43rd Bombardment Group, 15 January 1941 – 29 April 1946 * 43rd Bombardment Group, 1 October 1946 *

, 16 June 1952 – 31 January 1970pp. 70-72

Stations

* Langley Field, Virginia, 15 January 1941 * Army Air Base, Bangor, Maine, 28 August 1941 – 17 February 1942 *

Sydney Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport — colloquially Kingsford Smith Airport, Sydney Airport or Mascot Airport — is an international airport serving Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district, in the subu ...

, Australia, 28 March 1942 *

Charleville Airport Charleville Airport is an airport located southwest of Charleville, Queensland, Charleville, a town in the state of Queensland in Australia. The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, Royal Flying Doctor Service has one of its nine Queensl ...

, Australia, 15 June 1942 *

Longreach Airport Longreach Airport is situated in Longreach, Queensland, Australia. The airport is northeast of the city. The Royal Flying Doctor Service has one of its nine Queensland bases at Longreach Airport. History Longreach has played a major part i ...

Torrens Creek Torrens Creek is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Flinders, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Torrens Creek had a population of 46 people. Geography The town is on the Flinders Highway, north-west of the state capita ...

, Australia, 3 August 1942 *

Mareeba Airfield Mareeba Airfield is an airfield located south of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. Built in 1942 as a US Army Air Force base during World War II, the airfield had two runways, with a complement of taxiways, hardstands and a containment area. Af ...

, Australia, 20 August 1942 * Jackson Airfield,

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, 23 January 1943 *

Dobodura Airfield Girua Airport is an airport serving Popondetta, a city in the Oro (or Northern) province in Papua New Guinea. History Girua Airport is located near Dobodura, to the north-east of the Embi Lakes, north-east of Inonda. To the south is Mt. Laming ...

, New Guinea, 29 October 1943 * Nadzab Airfield, New Guinea, April 1944 *

Owi Airfield Owi Airfield is a former World War II airfield located on Owi Island in the Schouten Islands, Indonesia. The airfield was ordered built by General MacArthur on 6 June 1944. It was constructed by the 864th Engineer Aviation Battalion with B Compa ...

Schouten Islands The Biak Islands (, also Schouten Islands or Geelvink Islands) are an island group of Southwest Papua province, eastern Indonesia in the Cenderawasih Bay (or Geelvink Bay) 50 km off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. Th ...

, Netherlands East Indies, 20 July 1944 * Tacloban Airfield,

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 ...

, Philippines, 23 November 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 ...

, Luzon, Philippines, 19 March 1945 * Ie Shima Airfield, Okinawa, 25 July 1945 *

, Philippines, 10 December 1945 – 29 April 1946 * Davis-Monthan Field (later Davis-Monthan Air Force Base), Arizona, 1 October 1946 * Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, 15 March 1960 *

, Arkansas, 1 September 1964 – 31 January 1970Mueller, p. 325

Aircraft

* Douglas B-18 Bolo 1941–1942 * North American B-25, 1941–1942 * Consolidated LB-30 Liberator, 1941–1942 * Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1941–1942, 1942–1943 * Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 1942–1945 *

, 1946–1950 *

, 1948–1954 * Boeing B-47 Stratojet, 1954–1960 * Convair B-58 Hustler, 1960–1970

Awards and campaigns

References

Notes

; Explanatory notes ; Citations

Bibliography

* (subscription required for web access) * * * * * * * {{USAAF 1st Air Force World War II 063 063 Strategic bombing squadrons of the United States Army Air Forces Military units and formations established in 1941 Units and formations of Strategic Air Command