71st Air Refueling Squadron The 71st Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . It was last assigned to the 458th Operations Group at Barksdale AFB , Louisiana where it was inactivated on 1 April 1994 . The squadron was first activated as the 471st Bombardment Squadron in the summer of 1942 and assigned to the 334th Bombardment Group at Greenville AAB , South Carolina . It operated as a North American B - 25 Mitchell aircrew replacement training unit until it was disbanded in the spring of 1944 . The 71st Air Refueling Squadron was activated in 1955 at Dow Air Force Base , Maine and equipped with Boeing KC - 97 Stratotanker s . In March 1964 the squadron reequipped with Boeing KC - 135 Stratotanker s and when Dow closed in 1968 , moved to Barksdale AFB , Louisiana , remaining there until it was inactivated as part of reorganization of air refueling squadrons by Air Mobility Command in 1994 . While at Barksdale , the two squadrons were consolidated . History . World War II . The 471st Bombardment Squadron was activated in the summer of 1942 as one of the four original squadrons of the 334th Bombardment Group at Greenville AAB , South Carolina . It operated as a North American B - 25 Mitchell replacement training unit . Replacement training units were oversized units which trained aircrew s prior to their deployment to combat theaters . However , Army Air Forces found that standard military units , based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving less well adapted to the training mission . Accordingly a more functional system was adopted in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit . This resulted in the 471st , along with other units at Greenville , being disbanded in the spring of 1944 and being replaced by the 330th AAF Base Unit ( Replacement Training Unit , Medium , Bombardment ) . Air Refueling operations . The 71st Air Refueling Squadron was activated at Dow Air Force Base , Maine in January 1955 . The squadron was designated for refueling strategic fighters and was to be colocated with the 506th Strategic Fighter Wing at Dow . However the 506th moved to Tinker Air Force Base , Oklahoma and the squadron was assigned directly to Eighth Air Force headquarters until the 4060th Air Refueling Wing was organized as the Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) wing at Dow . The squadron was equipped with KC - 97F Stratotanker s ( also KC - 97Gs ) . The squadron was redesignated as the 71st Air Refueling Squadron , ( Medium ) on 15 December 1957 and acted as a forward based refueling units supporting Boeing B - 47 Stratojet bombers and fighter aircraft deploying to and from Europe . In February 1960 the 4038th Strategic Wing was activated at Dow as part of SAC ' s plan to disperse its Boeing B - 52 Stratofortress heavy bomber s over a larger number of bases , thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike and the squadron was reassigned to it . The squadron continued to fly KC - 97s , however , until 1964 when it reequipped with Boeing KC - 135 Stratotanker s . The squadron provided long range air refueling support and participated in military exercise s and special operations . It deployed aircraft and aircrews to Europe , the Middle East , and Alaska supporting the European , Alaskan , and Pacific Tanker Task Forces while maintaining a high state of combat readiness . The 71st also supported USAF operations in Southeast Asia . Dow closed as an active USAF base in the spring of 1968 and most units there inactivated . The 71st , however relocated to Barksdale AFB , Louisiana , where it was assigned to the 2d Bombardment Wing . in 1968 remaining there until inactivation . While at Barksdale , the 471st Bombardment Squadron was consolidated with the 71st . When SAC implemented the Objective Wing organization in the fall of 1991 , the squadron was reassigned to the newly activated 2d Operations Group , but this assignment lasted only until 1993 when Air Combat Command transferred its air refueling units to Air Mobility Command ( AMC ) in 1993 . As AMC reorganized its tanker fleet , it removed its tankers from Barksdale and the 71st was inactivated on 1 April 1994 . Lineage . 471st Bombardment Squadron 71st Air Refueling Squadron