303d Air Refueling Squadron The 303d Air Refueling Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . It was last assigned to the 499th Air Refueling Wing at Kindley AFB , Bermuda , where it was inactivated on 15 June 1963 . The squadron was first active as the 303d Transport Squadron , an airlift element of the India - China Wing , Air Transport Command . The 303d flew missions over the Hump before being disbanded when Air Transport Command abandoned the traditional squadron and group organization for its operations in the China Burma India Theater . The second predecessor of the squadron was the 483d Bombardment Squadron , a very heavy Boeing B - 29 Superfortress squadron that flew missions from Tinian against Japan before moving to the Philippines , where it was inactivated in 1946 . The unit was activated a third time as the 303d Air Refueling Squadron , and served during the Cold War to support Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) bombers . For most of its active life , the squadron operated from a forward base in the middle Atlantic to support reflex deployments and maintained readiness to support Emergency War Order missions . In 1985 , the United States Air Force consolidated three squadrons , but they have not been active since the consolidation . History . Flying the Hump . The 303d Transport Squadron was activated in India in late spring 1943 . It operated Douglas C - 47 Skytrain and Curtiss C - 46 Commando transports in the China - Burma - India theater for the India - China Wing , Air Transport Command in 1943 . It flew supplies , equipment and personnel over the Hump from the Assam Valley of India to airfields in southeast China , primarily to support Fourteenth Air Force combat operations . It was a short - lived organization for it was disbanded in December 1943 and replaced , along with other elements of the 30th Transport Group , by Station 9 , India - China Wing , Air Transport Command . B - 29 Superfortress operations against Japan . The 483d Bombardment Squadron was activated in March 1944 as a Boeing B - 29 Superfortress very heavy bombardment squadron . The squadron trained at airfields in the midwest under Second Air Force . When training was completed the unit moved to North Field , Tinian in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific . There it became an element of XXI Bomber Command . Its mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands and the destruction of Japan ' s war - making capability . Upon arrival in the Pacific , the unit 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 resulted 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 and causing massive destruction of urbanized areas . The 483d 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 . The squadron was largely demobilized on Tinian during the fall of 1945 . It remained in Western Pacific as part of Twentieth Air Force . The 483d moved to Clark Field in the Philippines along with the 313th Bombardment Wing in March 1946 . It was inactivated at Clark in June . Its low - hour aircraft were flown to storage depots in the United States . Strategic Air Command . The 303d Air Refueling Squadron was activated in 1951 at Davis - Monthan Air Force Base , Arizona , but was inactivated seven months later . It was activated again in 1953 . In February 1956 , the squadron moved from Davis - Monthan to Kindley Air Force Base , Bermuda and was relieved from the 303d Bombardment Wing , At Kindley it was positioned to support Boeing B - 47 Stratojet aircraft deploying to Europe and Morocco on Operation Reflex and to provide forward refueling in the event of war . While stationed at Kindley the squadron was assigned to several headquarters located in the United States . The 303d performed air refueling to support SAC and USAF operations on a worldwide basis until it was inactivated in 1963 with the phaseout of the propeller - driven KC - 97 from SAC . Lineage . 303d Transport Squadron 483d Bombardment Squadron 303d Air Refueling Squadron