page_title: No. 36 Squadron RAAF
section_title: Globemaster era
hierarchical_section_title: No. 36 Squadron RAAF / History / Globemaster era
caption_attribution_description: English: Senior Airman Andrew Ammerman, an Air Terminal Operations Center controller with the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron, guides a 15 Brigade, Japan Ground Self Defense Force truck onto a Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster III of No. 36 Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Japan, March 17. The truck was being loaded onto the aircraft, along with a team of JGSDF members and supplies to be sent to northern Japan in support of earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Sara Csurilla)
context_page_description: No. 36 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force strategic transport squadron. It operates Boeing C-17 Globemaster III heavy airlifters from RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland. The squadron has seen active service flying transport aircraft during World War II, the Korean War, the Indonesia–Malaysia Konfrontasi, the Vietnam War, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has also supported Australian humanitarian and peacekeeping operations around the world, including Somalia, Cambodia, East Timor and Indonesia.
  The squadron was formed at RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria, in March 1942, and equipped with Douglas DC-2s, among other aircraft. Later in the war it began operating Douglas C-47 Dakotas. From 1946 to 1953 it was controlled by No. 86 Wing, which was based in New South Wales at RAAF Station Schofields and, later, RAAF Station Richmond. In 1953 it was re-formed at Iwakuni, Japan, as part of No. 91 Wing. It returned to Australia and the aegis of No. 86 Wing in 1955. The squadron began re-equipping with Lockheed C-130 Hercules at Richmond in 1958, becoming the first non-US operator of the type. Over the next half-century it flew two models of Hercules, the C-130A and C-130H.
context_section_description: In May 2006, No. 36 Squadron personnel began conversion training in the US in preparation for re-equipping with Boeing C-17 Globemaster III heavy transports. It transferred its C-130Hs to No. 37 Squadron on 17 November 2006, prior to relocating to Amberley. Also on 17 November, Wing Commander Linda Corbould took command of the unit, becoming the first woman to lead an RAAF flying squadron. Corbould was responsible for delivering the first Globemaster from the United States to Australia on 4 December. No. 36 Squadron achieved initial operating capability with the C-17 on 11 September 2007, following eight months' work-up training. In June 2008, it received the Gloucester Cup as the RAAF's most proficient flying squadron of 2007 "for achieving all training objectives, supporting air lift activities globally and nationally and fulfilling short-notice, high priority tasks, despite the squadron's expertise being in its infancy". Corbould completed her posting as commanding officer on 8 December 2008, the day the squadron marked the second anniversary of C-17 operations by conducting the RAAF's first flight with an all-female aircrew.
  Since re-equipping with the Globemaster, No. 36 Squadron has continued to support Coalition forces in Afghanistan, as well as humanitarian operations worldwide. In 2011, it took part in relief efforts following the floods in Queensland, the Christchurch earthquake, and the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The Queensland floods necessitated the evacuation of two C-17s to Richmond, when Amberley was threatened by rising waters; of the other two Globemasters, one was in the Middle East and the other was undergoing maintenance at Amberley and could not be flown but was moved onto high ground and escaped damage.  The deployment to Japan involved all three of the squadron's available C-17s, the fourth still being serviced at Amberley. On 11 May 2012, a C-17 flew an Australian Army M1 Abrams tank from RAAF Base Darwin to Shoalwater Bay for a training exercise; it was the first time an RAAF Globemaster had airlifted an Abrams, which at 61 tonnes was among the largest single items the 70-tonne-capacity aircraft could carry. In November that year the squadron took delivery of its sixth Globemaster. It was again awarded the Gloucester Cup in March 2013, for its proficiency the previous year.
  In September 2014, RAAF C-17s were used to airlift arms and munitions to forces in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq following an offensive by ISIL militants. On 10 April 2015, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the purchase of two more C-17s, which would bring No. 36 Squadron's complement to eight aircraft. Concurrent with delivery of the new C-17s by year's end, No. 36 Squadron's facilities were to be improved, obviating the need for maintenance to take place in No. 33 Squadron hangars. Also on 10 April, the squadron was awarded the Gloucester Cup a record seventh time, and the RAAF's Maintenance Trophy a record fourth time. Later the same month, an Airbus KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport of No. 33 Squadron carried out the RAAF's first in-flight refuelling of a No. 36 Squadron Globemaster. The Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, presented the squadron with a new standard on 19 May; the old standard was laid up in Holy Trinity Chapel at RAAF Williams, Victoria. No. 36 Squadron was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation in the Queen's Birthday Honours on 13 June 2016 for "sustained outstanding service in warlike operations throughout the Middle East Area of Operations over the period January 2002 to June 2014".
caption: C-17 loading a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force truck as part of the humanitarian response to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2011:03:17 03:50:06", "Image Artist": "", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "480", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1270", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5779", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "3200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:03:17 01:42:28", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:03:17 01:42:28", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTime": "08", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "08", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "08", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1887", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1248", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1124", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "70", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}