page_title: 906th Air Refueling Squadron
section_title: Strategic Air Command
hierarchical_section_title: 906th Air Refueling Squadron / History / Strategic Air Command
caption_attribution_description: Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker cargo door, crew entry door Original caption: United States and Royal Australian Air Force members unload cargo from a KC-135A Stratotanker aircraft. The aircraft, assigned to the 906th Air Refueling Squadron, 43rd Strategic Wing, Pacific Task Force, is participating in Exercise Glad Customer '82.
context_page_description: The 906th Air Refueling Squadron is an active United States Air Force unit. It is an active associate squadron and part of the 375th Air Mobility Wing at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
  The squadron was first activated in United States military buildup just before World War II as the 16th Reconnaissance Squadron. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron participated in the Antisubmarine Campaign of the American Theater of Operations. As the 406th Bombardment Squadron it also served in the Aleutian Islands Campaign of the Pacific Theater of Operations and several campaigns in the European Theater of Operations. The squadron was unusual in that it received campaign credit in three difference theaters of operation.
  The 906th Air Refueling Squadron was activated as part of Strategic Air Command's nuclear deterrent force. It maintained aircraft on alert throughout the Cold War. The squadron deployed aircrews and aircraft to support combat operations in Southeast Asia from the mid 1960s through the early 1970s.
context_section_description: In 1959 the Air Force assigned the 906th Air Refueling Squadron to Strategic Air Command (SAC), which organized it at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota in June, where it was assigned to the 4136th Strategic Wing. The 4136th wing was established by SAC in a program to disperse its Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike. The squadron received its first Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker on 23 September 1959 and was judged to be combat ready on 31 October. Starting in 1960, one third of the squadron's aircraft were maintained on fifteen-minute alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike.  This was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962. The 4136th (and later the 450th and 5th wings) continued to maintain an alert commitment until the end of the Cold War.  The 906th refueled B-52s participating in Operation Chrome Dome, the airborne component of SAC's alert force, until Chrome Dome was terminated in 1968.  The squadron's ground alert commitment was increased in the fall of 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when all available aircraft assumed an alert status.
  In February 1963, The 450th Bombardment Wing assumed the aircraft, personnel and equipment of the discontinued 4136th wing. The 4136th was a Major Command controlled (MAJCON) wing, which could not carry a permanent history or lineage, and SAC wanted to replace it with a permanent unit.   The 900th was assigned to the newly activated 450th wing. In 1966 the squadron was awarded the Saunders Trophy for outstanding refueling operations.
  In 1962, SAC organized four Post-Attack Command and Control System (PACCS) squadrons and equipped them with Boeing EB-47 Stratojets.  The establishment of Boeing EC-135 airborne command post aircraft at SAC headquarters and at each of its Numbered Air Forces resulted in the inactivation of the less capable B-47 units by 1965.  The communications relay mission of the B-47 units was assumed by the 906th and 28th Air Refueling Squadrons, which received a variety of EC-135s for this mission.  By the mid-1960s, improved accuracy of Soviet ballistic missiles made underground Minuteman missile launch control centers more vulnerable, so the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) was created to provide a survivable launch capability. The ALCS was eventually installed aboard all PACCS aircraft assigned to the 906th.  Launch crews came from the 91st Strategic Missile Wing.  In April 1970, the squadron's ALCS aircraft were transferred to the new 4th Airborne Command and Control Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
  The squadron deployed aircrews and aircraft to support the Spanish, Great Lakes and Alaskan Tanker Task Forces. It engaged in worldwide operations supporting combat operations in Southeast Asia from 1968 through 1975 through participation in Operation Young Tiger and support for Operation Arc Light. Afterwards it continued to support forward based tanker task forces. It supported combat operations in Southwest Asia from 1990 through 1991.
caption: 906th Air Refueling Squadron KC-135A on deployment to the Pacific in 1982
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