page_title: 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: 75th Military Airlift Squadron Lockheed C-141A-LM Starlifter 65-0248, about 1966. (c/n 300-6099) Aircraft was converted to C-141B in 1979; C-141C about 2003. Left Robins AFB, Georgia Oct 16, 2003 having had the final C-141 Programmed Depot Maintence (Programmed Depot Maintenance). Was retired to AMARC as CR0224 Apr 19, 2005. Pulled from AMARC and flown to Robins AFB, Georgia in 2005; dissasembled and moved to Museum of Aviation; re-assembled and now on display at museum, restored to 2005 condition, 2006.
context_page_description: The 75th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron is a provisional Air Force squadron. It was most recently activated in May 2014 in Djibouti, where it provides airlift support for Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa. It replaced the 52d Expeditionary Airlift Squadron.
  The squadron was first activated as the 75th Ferrying Squadron in 1943 it transported cargo. It was redesignated the 75th Transport Transition Squadron later that year and trained aircrews on transport aircraft until being disbanded the following year.
  The 75th was reconstituted as the 75th Air Transport Squadron in 1952. It operated heavy airlift aircraft, primarily in the Pacific area until 1993.
  Prior to its conversion to provisional status it was last assigned to the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where it operated C-9A Nightingale aircraft providing theater medical evacuation airlift in Europe until 2003.
context_section_description: The squadron was reactivated by Military Air Transport Service (MATS), June 1952 at Great Falls Air Force Base, Montana.   Its primary mission was to transport personnel, equipment and supplies to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska and return to Great Falls.  When MATS ended operations at Great Falls, was transferred to Travis Air Force Base, California, continued Alaska support operations as well as flying airlift operations throughout the Pacific.   It flew routine flights to Japan, Hawaii, Alaska and other points in Asia, including transport flights to Indochina and Karachi in Pakistan.
  It was the second squadron to receive Lockheed C-141A Starlifters in 1965.   Along with the 44th Military Airlift Squadron, it primarily flew cargo and personnel to United States bases in South Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War. In 1970 began transition to the larger Lockheed C-5A Galaxy airlifter, continuing its mission until the end of United States involvement in Vietnam in 1973.  After Vietnam, the squadron returned to normal peacetime operations throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, supporting United States initiatives throughout the world by airlifting passengers, equipment and materiel wherever needed.  The squadron briefly returned to combat duty in October 1983, when it supported combat operations in Grenada as part of Operation Urgent Fury and airlifted combat personnel to the island and assisted in the evacuation of American civilian medical students back to the United States. In December 1989, the squadron participated in Operation Just Cause, which ended the dictatorship of Panama's Gen. Manuel Noriega.
  In August 1990, the 75th MAS provided strategic airlift in support of the massive coalition forces buildup in Southwest Asia prior to Operations Desert Shield; Operation Desert Storm and Operation Southern Watch. These operations helped contain the expansionist policies of Iraqi president Sadaam Hussein. In the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, the squadron also supported Operation Provide Comfort for Kurdish refugees for Kurdish refugees threatened by Iraqi forces.
caption: 75th MAS C-141A Starlifter 65-0248, about 1966
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