43d Flying Training Squadron The 43d Flying Training Squadron ( 43 FTS ) is part of the 340th Flying Training Group and is the reserve associate to the 14th Flying Training Wing based at Columbus Air Force Base , Mississippi . It operates T - 1 Jayhawk , T - 6 Texan II and T - 38 Talon aircraft conducting flight training . Mission . The 43 FTS administers and executes the Air Education and Training Command / Air Force Reserve Command Associate Instructor Pilot ( IP ) Program and provides Active Guard Reserve ( AGR ) and Traditional Reserve ( TR ) IPs to augment the cadre of active duty pilots conducting pilot training . During wartime , or in the event of hostilities , the unit is mobilized to offset anticipated losses of experienced active duty pilot contributions to the instructor pilot training programs . History . Activated in early 1940 as part of the pre - World War II build up of the United States Army Air Corps after the breakout of war in Europe . Assigned to the GHQ Northeast Air District , equipped with B - 18 Bolos ; later early model B - 17C / D heavy bombers . After the Pearl Harbor Attack . flew antisubmarine patrol missions in the Caribbean from , January – June 1942 . Returned to the United States in June 1942 and was assigned to II Bomber Command . Was an Operational Training ( OTU ) and later Replacement Training Unit ( RTU ) for B - 17 heavy bomber units and replacement personnel until March 1944 with the end of Heavy Bomber training . B - 29 Superfortress operations against Japan . Re - designated on 1 April 1944 as a B - 29 Superfortress Very Heavy bombardment squadron . When training was completed moved to North Field Guam in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific Area in January 1945 and assigned to XXI Bomber Command , Twentieth Air Force . It ' s mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands and the destruction of its war - making capability . Flew " shakedown " missions against Japanese targets on Moen Island , Truk , and other points in the Carolines and Marianas . The squadron began combat missions over Japan on 25 February 1945 with a firebombing mission over Northeast Tokyo . The squadron continued to participate in wide area firebombing attack , but the first ten day blitz resulting in the Army Air Forces running out of incendiary bombs . Until then the squadron flew conventional strategic bombing missions using high explosive bombs . The squadron continued attacking urban areas with incendiary raids until the end of the war in August 1945 , attacking major Japanese cities , causing massive destruction of urbanized areas . Also conducted raids against strategic objectives , bombing aircraft factories , chemical plants , oil refineries , and other targets in Japan . The squadron flew its last combat missions on 14 August when hostilities ended . Afterwards , its B 29s carried relief supplies to Allied prisoner of war camps in Japan and Manchuria . Squadron remained in Western Pacific , although largely demobilized in the fall of 1945 . Some aircraft scrapped on Tinian ; others flown to storage depots in the United States . Remained as a paper unit assigned to Twentieth Air Force until inactivated in 1946 . United States Air Force . It conducted undergraduate pilot training from , 1972 – 1977 , 1990 – 1992 , and since 1997 .