37th Tactical Missile Squadron The 37th Tactical Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . It was last assigned to the 23d Air Division , Aerospace Defense Command , stationed near Kincheloe AFB , Michigan . It was inactivated on 31 July 1972 . History . World War II Training Unit . The squadron was first activated as the 537th Bombardment Squadron at Salt Lake City Army Air Base , Utah as one of the four squadrons of the 382d Bombardment Group in late 1942 . It moved to Davis - Monthan Field , Arizona , where it was equipped with Consolidated B - 24 Liberator s and served as an operational training unit until late March 1943 . The operational training unit program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to " satellite groups . " It then moved to Pocatello Army Air Field , Idaho and became a replacement training unit . Replacement training units were also oversized , but focused on training individual pilots and aircrew s . Its personnel were withdrawn " circa " 3 December 1943 as it moved to Muroc Army Air Field , California and it remained a paper unit until it was inactivated in March 1944 . World War II Combat in the Pacific . The second time the unit was activated , it was as the 680th Bombardment Squadron in December 1944 as a B - 29 Superfortress very heavy bombardment squadron at Alamogordo Army Air Field , New Mexico . The 680th was equipped with later - model B - 29As , with only minor differences than the original B - 29 model built by Boeing with some revised engine nacelles and pneumatically - operated bomb - bay doors which could be snapped shut in less than a second . When its training at Alamogordo was completed . the squadron moved to North Field Tinian in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific Area in June 1945 and joined the XXI Bomber Command of Twentieth Air Force . Its arrival boosted the 504th Bombardment Group to its full authorization of three bombardment squadrons . Its mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands and the destruction of Japan ' s war - making capability . The squadron flew low level nighttime incendiary raids until the end of the war in August 1945 , attacking major Japanese cities , causing massive destruction of urbanized areas . Also flew mining operations against enemy shipping in Korean shipping lanes , the Shimonoseki Strait and harbors of the Inland Sea , for which it received a Distinguished Unit Citation . 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 dropped relief food and supplies to Allied prisoner of war camps in Japan and Manchuria , flew show of force missions over Japan and missions to evaluate the damage inflicted on Japan by bombardment operations . The squadron was largely demobilized on Tinian during the fall of 1945 . It moved to Clark Field in the Philippines , where it was inactivated in March 1946 and its low - hour aircraft were flown to storage depots in the United States . Cold War Air Defense . The squadron was activated for a third time on 1 March 1960 as the 37th Air Defense Missile Squadron It initially monitored the construction of the BOMARC missile facility near Raco , Michigan . The squadron moved to the missile site and was operational by 1 June 1961 . By the end of 1961 the squadron stood alert using its complement of 24 IM - 99B ( later CIM - 10 ) BOMARC surface to air antiaircraft missiles . During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis , the full squadron stood alert for 27 days . 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 . As the strategic bomber threat to the United States diminished , so did the need for the BOMARC missile and the squadron was inactivated on 31 July 1972 . The BOMARC missile site was located northwest of Kincheloe AFB at . Although geographically separated from the base , it was an off base facility of Kinchloe and received administrative and logistical support from Kinchloe . Consolidation . The three squadrons were consoldated as the 37th Tactical Missile Squadron on 19 September 1985 while remaining inactive .