524th Bombardment Squadron The 524th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . It was last assigned to the 379th Bombardment Wing . It was last stationed at Wurtsmith Air Force Base , Michigan , and was inactivated on 15 June 1993 . History . Established in late 1947 as a B - 17 Flying Fortress heavy bomb squadron ; trained under Second Air Force . Deployed to the European Theater of Operations ( ETO ) in early 1943 , being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England . Began long range strategic bombardment operations over enemy - held Europe on 19 May 1943 ; engaged primarily in bombardment of strategic targets such as industries , oil refineries , storage plants , submarine pens , airfields and communications centers in Germany , France , the Netherlands , Belgium , Norway and Poland . Specific targets included a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen , an aircraft assembly plant in Brunswick , ball - bearing plants at Schweinfurt and Leipzig , synthetic oil refineries at Merseburg and Gelsenkirchen , marshalling yards at Hamm and Reims and airfields in Mesnil au Val and Berlin . On several occasions the squadron attacked interdiction targets and operated in support of ground forces . It bombed V - weapon sites , airfields , radar stations and other installations before the Normandy invasion in June 1944 , bombed defended positions just ahead of the Allied landings on 6 June and struck airfields , rail choke points , and gun emplacements during the campaign that followed . During the Northern France Campaign , the squadron bombed enemy positions to assist ground troops at St Lo during the breakthrough , 24 – 25 July 1944 , attacked German communications and fortifications during the Battle of the Bulge , December 1944 - January 1945 , and bombed bridges and viaducts in France and Germany to aid the Allied assault across the Rhine , February – March 1945 , combat ending with the German Capitulation in May 1945 . Was reassigned to Air Transport Command and assigned to Casablanca , French Morocco , the squadron used its B - 17 bombers as transports , ferrying military personnel from locations in France to Morocco , then south to Dakar in French West Africa or to the Azores for further transportation by other units . Inactivated in place in Morocco in late July 1945 . Was reactivated as a Strategic Air Command B - 47 Stratojet squadron in 1955 at Homestead AFB , Florida . Trained with the B - 47 and participated in worldwide deployments and SAC exercises . Beginning in October 1960 , the squadron began transferring its B - 47s to other SAC units and became non - operational . Reassigned to Wurtsmith AFB , Michigan and assumed the B - 52H Stratofortresses and personnel of a provisional squadron . During the Vietnam War , aircrews and personnel were deployed to forward bases in the Western Pacific ; engaging in combat operations over Indochina as part of Operation Arc Light , Linebacker I and Linebacker II . In 1977 , the 524th exchanged their B - 52Hs for the conventional bomb capable B - 52G . Retirement of the B - 52G began in the late 1980s , however the Gulf War of 1990 - 1991 resulted in a temporary delay in the inactivation of B - 52G units . The squadron deployed aircraft and personnel to Prince Abdullah AB in Jeddah , Saudi Arabia . These planes were part of the 1708th Bombardment Wing ( P ) , a provisional wing formed from B - 52Gs out of Barksdale , Castle , Wurtsmith , and others . The planes arrived at dawn on the first day of the air war . One plane flew 29 missions out of Jeddah , the most of any bomber crew in the theater . During the Gulf War , 524th squadron aircraft carried the " Triangle K " tail flash in honor of their World War II predecessors and heritage . After the end of the Gulf War , the squadron was inactivated in 1993 .