page_title: 47th Airlift Flight
section_title: Tactical Air Command
hierarchical_section_title: 47th Airlift Flight / History / Tactical Air Command
caption_attribution_description: English: C-130E #69-6569 of the 61st Tactical Airlift Squadron, Sewart Air Force Base TN.
context_page_description: The 47th Airlift Flight is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 375th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, where it served as an operational support airlift flight, operating Learjet C-21s from 1997 until 2004.
  The flight was first activated as the 47th Transport Squadron in June 1942. As the 47th Troop Carrier Squadron, it flew Douglas C-47 Skytrains in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations during World War II, earning Distinguished Unit Citations for carrying reinforcements to Sicily despite fire from ground and naval forces in July 1943, and for participation in Operation Overlord in June 1944. It converted to Curtiss C-46 Commandos, with which it took part in Operation Varsity. After V-E Day, the squadron returned to the United States, where it was inactivated.
  The squadron was activated in Italy in 1946, but in 1947 was transferred to the United States on paper and began to train with Fairchild C-82 Packets. The following year, the 47th returned to Europe to participate in the Berlin Airlift with Douglas C-54 Skymasters. After the successful completion of the airlift, the squadron was again inactivated in 1949.
context_section_description: The squadron was activated at Mitchel Air Force Base, New York on 1 April 1953, when it assumed the mission, personnel, and Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 336th Troop Carrier Squadron, a reserve unit that had been called to active duty for the Korean War.  That October, the 47th moved to Sewart Air Force Base, where it performed airlift missions under the control of Eighteenth Air Force until inactivating in June 1955.
  In October 1964 the squadron was reactivated at Forbes Air Force Base, Kansas as a Lockheed C-130 Hercules squadron when Tactical Air Command replaced Strategic Air Command as the base operator and the squadron's parent 313th Troop Carrier Wing became the host wing.  The squadron frequently deployed crews and aircraft to support the requirements of overseas commanders.  With the forthcoming closure of Forbes in 1973, the squadron moved to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas in July 1973, where the 463d Tactical Airlift Wing was adding a third Hercules squadron.  However, on 1 August, the squadron was inactivated and its personnel and equipment were transferred to th 774th Tactical Airlift Squadron, which moved to Dyess on paper from Mactan Air Base in the Philippines as the United States withdrew forces from Southeast Asia.
caption: C-130 as flown by the squadron at Forbes and Dyess
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