429th Attack Squadron


The 429th Attack Squadron is a classic associate squadron, stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. It is geographically separated from its parent 926th Wing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
The squadron was previously the 429th Bombardment Squadron, a Boeing B-47 Stratojet unit based at Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia, where it was inactivated on 1 January 1962.
The squadron was first organized during World War I as the 41st Aero Squadron, and served in France during that war before being demobilized in 1919. In 1924 it was consolidated with the 41st School Squadron, which had been organized in 1922. The squadron later converted to the reconnaissance mission as the 41st Observation Squadron. During World War II, as the 429th Bombardment Squadron, it was a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress squadron, assigned to the 2d Bombardment Group. It earned Two Distinguished Unit Citations while serving in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, inactivating in Italy after the end of the war.

Mission

The squadron's mission is to support three regular Air Force formal training squadrons with General Atomics MQ-1 Predator and General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper instructor pilots, sensor operators and mission intelligence coordinators.

History

World War I

main: 41st Aero Squadron
The first predecessor of the squadron was established in June 1917 as the Air Service 41st Aero Squadron at Camp Kelly, Texas as part of the United States' mobilization after its entry into World War I. After several months of routine training and garrison duties, it deployed to Europe. The squadron trained with the Royal Flying Corps in Scotland from March to August 1918, then moved to France. and it became operationally ready as a pursuit squadron in the United States Second Army just as hostilities ceased in November 1918. It never saw action, but served with United States Third Army as part of the occupation forces, until May 1919. It returned to the United States in June 1919 and was demobilized in July.

Flying training

The second predecessor of the squadron was established in 1922 as the 41st Squadron, a pilot training squadron, at Kelly Field. It was renamed the 41st School Squadron the following year. The squadron taught basic flight training throughout the 1920s and early 1930s using a variety of trainers; switching to advanced flight training in 1931.

Reconnaissance

In 1935 the squadron moved to Langley Field, Virginia, where it was redesignated the 41st Observation Squadron and was equipped with Martin B-10 bombers. It performed training flights primarily over the mid-Atlantic area. It later received Douglas B-18 Bolo medium bombers in 1937 and early-model Boeing B-17C Flying Fortress heavy bombers.

World War II

After the Pearl Harbor Attack, the squadron initially assigned to antisubmarine duty over the Atlantic Coast. In the spring of 1942, the squadron became the 429th Bombardment Squadron. It deployed in early 1943 to Twelfth Air Force in North Africa. The 429th engaged in long-range strategic bombing missions in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations until 1945. Missions flown included bombing such targets as marshalling yards, aerodromes, troop concentrations, bridges, docks, and shipping. The squadron participated in the defeat of Axis forces in Tunisia, April–May 1943; the reduction of Pantelleria and the preparations for the invasion of Sicily, in May through July 1943 and the invasion of Italy, September 1943.
The squadron moved to Italy in December 1943 and continued operations as part of Fifteenth Air Force. Operated primarily from Amendola Airfield near Foggia. It engaged primarily in long-range bombardment of strategic targets in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Rumania, and Greece. The 429th participated in the drive toward Rome from January through June 1944, the invasion of Southern France in August 1944, and the campaigns against German forces in northern Italy from June 1944 until May 1945. The squadron was inactivated in Italy in early 1946.

Strategic Air Command

From 1958, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet wings of Strategic Air Command began to assume an alert posture at their home bases, reducing the amount of time spent on alert at overseas bases. The SAC alert cycle divided itself into four parts: planning, flying, alert and rest to meet General Thomas S. Power’s initial goal of maintaining one third of SAC’s planes on fifteen minute ground alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. To implement this new system B-47 wings reorganized from three to four squadrons. The 429th was activated at Hunter Air Force Base as the fourth squadron of the 2d Bombardment Wing. The alert commitment was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962 and the four squadron pattern no longer met the alert cycle commitment, so the squadron was inactivated on 1 January 1962.

Lineage

; 41st Aero Squadron
; 429th Attack Squadron