24th Tactical Missile Squadron The 24th Tactical Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . It was last active as the 74th Air Defense Missile Squadron assigned to the 23d Air Division of Aerospace Defense Command , stationed near Duluth Municipal Airport , Minnesota . It was inactivated in 1972 . The squadron ' s earliest predecessor was active early in World War II as an antisubmarine unit in the Caribbean and Europe until its mission was transferred to the United States Navy . During the Cold War it was a training unit for Matador cruise missiles . Its most recently active predecessor was an air defense missile squadron in the northern United States from 1960 to 1972 . History . World War II Antisubmarine Operations . The squadron was first activated as the 40th Bombardment Squadron ( Medium ) in early 1941 as one of the four squadrons of the 13th Bombardment Group , an element of First Air Force , equipped with B - 18 Bolo s at Langley Field , Virginia . After the United States entered World War II the group was ordered to search for German U - Boat s and to fly aerial coverage of friendly convoys off the northeast Atlantic , protecting the Boston and New York City shipping lanes . The squadron deployed to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base , Cuba and was attached to the Caribbean Sea Frontier of the United States Navy to patrol northern Caribbean waters , then to airfields in Jamaica , Trinidad and Surinam during 1942 , flying antisubmarine missions . The squadron was redesignated as the 4th Antisubmarine Squadron and was assigned to the 25th Antisubmarine Wing of the Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command in November 1942 , when the 13th Group was inactivated and returned to Mitchel Field , New York before being reassigned to RCAF Station Gander , Newfoundland , flying antisubmarine patrols over the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and North Atlantic shipping lanes performing convoy escort patrols . The squadron moved to southwestern England in June 1943 and was reassigned to 479th Antisubmarine Group in July . It flew killer hunts against German U - Boat s in the Bay of Biscay off the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border . Along this part of the occupied French coast were major Kriegsmarine U - Boat bases at Brest , Lorient , Saint - Nazaire , La Rochelle ( La Pallice ) and Bordeaux . The squadron ' s air echelon inactivated in late October 1943 with its aircraft being reassigned to the United States Navy after the inactivation of AAF Antisubmarine Command . Squadron personnel were reassigned to Eighth Air Force units as replacement personnel . Cold War Tactical Missile Training . The squadron was activated for a second time on 15 March 1957 as the 24th Tactical Missile Squadron and assigned to Ninth Air Force ' s 589th Tactical Missile Group ( TMG ) . It trained for operation of TM - 61 Matador tactical cruise missiles at Orlando AFB . When the 17th Tactical Missile Squadron deployed to Taiwan in April 1958 , the 24th was transferred to the 589th TMG . It engaged in crew training with the 589th but never received any missiles or deployment orders before inactivating . The 24th and 588th TMG were programmed to deploy to South Korea during the fall of 1958 , but instead , the unit was inactivated on 15 July 1958 . The personnel and equipment of the 588th were reassigned to the newly formed 58th Tactical Missile Group at Osan AB , South Korea , while the 310th Fighter - Bomber Squadron at Osan gave up its F - 86 Sabre s and became the 310th Tactical Missile Squadron , becoming a Matador squadron and absorbing the personnel of the 588th TMG " en masse " . Cold War Air Defense . The squadron was activated for the third time on 1 April 1960 as the 74th Air Defense Missile Squadron at Duluth Municipal Airport . It stood alert during the Cold War , with IM - 99A ( later CIM - 10 ) BOMARC surface to air antiaircraft missiles . The squadron was tied into a Semi - Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE ) direction center which could use analog computers to process information from ground radars , picket ships and airborne aircraft to accelerate the display of tracking data at the direction center to quickly direct the missile site to engage hostile aircraft . It was inactivated on 30 April 1972 . The BOMARC missile site was located northeast of Duluth MAP at . Although geographically separated from the base , it was an off base facility of Duluth MAP and the squadron received administrative and logistical support from the military facilities at Duluth Airport . Consolidation . The 40th Bombardment Squadron and the 74th Air Defense Missile Squadron were consolidated with the 24th Tactical Missile Squadron on 19 September 1958 , while remaining in inactive status . Lineage . 4th Antisubmarine Squadron 74th Air Defense Missile Squadron 24th Tactical Missile Squadron References . Bibliography . Further Reading