42nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron
The 42nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, sometimes written as 42d Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, is a provisional unit of the United States Air Force, assigned to United States Air Forces in Europe to activate or inactivate as needed. Originally constituted as the "42nd Transport Squadron" in 1942 and redesignated the "42nd Troop Carrier Squadron" the same year, it received its present designation in 2007. It was last active at Ramstein Air Base, Germany in 2009. History. World War II. The squadron was first activated at Elmendorf Field, Alaska in May 1942. The 42d transported personnel and supplies to  the Aleutian Islands until February 1944. As combat operations diminished, the squadron departed Alaska with the air echelon leaving on 11 February 1944 and the ground echelon following a week later. The squadron was reunited at Lawson Field, Georgia on 6 March to serve as a Replacement Training Unit (RTU). RTUs were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters. The squadron also began to participate in exercises with the parachute school at Fort Benning. However, the 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, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit, while the groups and squadrons acting as RTUs were disbanded or inactivated. As a result, one month after the squadron arrived in Georgia, in April 1944, it was disbanded and its personnel and equipment were transferred to the 811th AAF Base Unit (Parachute Flight Training). Special Operations. The squadron was reactivated as a "Special" troop carrier squadron at RAF Molesworth in fall 1956, when it absorbed the personnel, SA-16 and C-119F aircraft and special operations mission of  the 582d Air Resupply Group. In the spring of 1957, as United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) was preparing to wind down operations at Molesworth, the squadron moved to RAF Alconbury, where it was inactivated in December. The squadron's Douglas C-54 Skymasters and Douglas C-47 Skytrains were sent to Rhein-Main Air Base West Germany, and its Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars were sent to the 322d Air Division at Evreux-Fauville Air Base France. Provisional squadron. It was reformed as the 42d Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in 2007 and allotted to USAFE to activate as needed for operations. USAFE  activated the squadron from 2008 to 2009 to fly missions in the United States Africa Command area.