page_title: 962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron
section_title: Initial activation and training in the United States
hierarchical_section_title: 962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron / History / World War II / Initial activation and training in the United States
caption_attribution_description: English: B-24s of the 493d Bombardment Group USAAF at Debach Airfield, England.
context_page_description: The 962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron, sometimes written as 962d Airborne Air Control Squadron, is part of the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. It operates the E-3 Sentry aircraft conducting airborne command and control missions. The squadron's first predecessor was the 862nd Bombardment Squadron, a heavy bomber unit that saw combat during World War II in the European Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. Toward the end of the war, the squadron operated fighter aircraft, acting as a scouting force for bomber formations. After V-E Day, the squadron returned the United States and was inactivated. The second predecessor of the squadron was activated at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts as the 962nd Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron in 1955. It performed surveillance and warning missions off the Atlantic coast until inactivating in 1969. The two squadrons were consolidated into a single unit in 1985. The consolidated squadron was activated in Alaska the following year and has provided surveillance, detection and control of airpower since then.
context_section_description: The squadron's first predecessor, the 862th Bombardment Squadron, was first activated at McCook Army Air Field, Nebraska as one of the original four squadrons of the 493d Bombardment Group.  The formation of the squadron was delayed by an administrative error that caused some of the unit's cadre to report to Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona instead of McCook.  It was not until January that all personnel were at McCook.  By this time, the squadron had transferred on paper to  Elveden Hall, England.  The ground personnel of the squadron in the United States had been used to form Boeing B-29 Superfortress units being activated by Second Air Force, while the air echelon remained in Nebraska to conduct training on their assigned Consolidated B-24 Liberators.  Meanwhile, Eighth Air Force formed a new ground echelon for the squadron in England from other units assigned to the 3d Bombardment Division.  This ground echelon moved to the squadron's combat station, RAF Debach, in April 1944.  The squadron's air echelon departed for England via the northern ferry route on 1 May, while a small ground component left McCook and sailed from Boston, Massachusetts on the SS Brazil (1928) on 12 May 1944.
caption: B-24s of the 493d Bomb Group at Debach
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