32nd Flying Training Squadron


The 32d Flying Training Squadron was last part of the 71st Flying Training Wing based at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. It operated Beechcraft T-1 Jayhawk aircraft conducting flight training. It was inactivated on 14 September 2012.

History

World War II

Activated in late 1942 under I Troop Carrier Command and equipped with C-47 Skytrains. Trained in various parts of the eastern United States until the end of 1943. Deployed to French Morocco in May 1943 and assigned to Twelfth Air Force to support combat operations in the North African Campaign. Remained with Twelfth Air Force, moving to Tunisia and Sicily providing transport and resupply operations as well as casualty evacuation of wounded personnel in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Reassigned to IX Troop Carrier Command, in England during early 1944 as part of the build-up of Allied forces prior to the D-Day invasion of France.
Began operations by dropping paratroops into Normandy on D-Day and releasing gliders with reinforcements on the following day. The unit received a Distinguished Unit Citation for these missions.
After the Normandy invasion the squadron ferried supplies in the United Kingdom. The squadron also hauled food, clothing, medicine, gasoline, ordnance equipment, and other supplies to the front lines and evacuated patients to rear zone hospitals. It dropped paratroops near Nijmegen and towed gliders carrying reinforcements during the Operation Market Garden, the airborne attack on the Netherlands. In December, it participated in the Battle of the Bulge by releasing gliders with supplies for the 101st Airborne Division near Bastogne.
Moved to Belgium in early 1945, and participated in the Western Allied invasion of Germany, participating in the air assault across the Rhine River in March 1945, each aircraft towed two gliders with troops of the 17th Airborne Division and released them near Wesel.
After V-E Day, became part of the United States Air Forces in Europe, being assigned to AAF Station Frankfurt and was part of the USAFE European Air Transport System, supporting the occupation forces in Germany as well as carrying supplies and personnel between various stations in Western Europe. Inactivated on 30 September 1946 in Germany.

Airlift operations

The squadron was redesignated the 32d Tactical Airlift Squadron and conducted worldwide airlift operations between 1973 and 1979.

Pilot training

The squadron became the 32d Flying Training Squadron and provided pilot training from 1995–2012. Due to a lack of a relevant mission for a lesser known sister squadron, the 32d was inactivated in an attempt to save the heritage of the 3rd Fighter Training Squadron. The 32d was inactivated on 14 Sep 2012.

Campaigns and decorations