54th Helicopter Squadron
The 54th Helicopter Squadron is a unit of the United States Air Force based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. It is currently part of the 582d Helicopter Group, headquartered at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Since it was first created, it has served a search and rescue and transport function at Air Force bases in three locations in North America. In its most recent format (since 1993), it has been stationed at Minot Air Force Base. History. Search and rescue. The squadron was first activated in November 1952 as the 54th  Air Rescue Squadron at Goose Bay Airport, Labrador, when Air Rescue Service expanded its squadrons into groups. At Goose, the new squadron assumed the personnel, equipment and mission of Flight D, 6th Air Rescue Squadron, which was simultaneously discontinued. The squadron performed search and rescue missions in Labrador and Greenland and the surrounding waters. The squadron was briefly inactivated in June 1960, but was restored to active duty at Goose the following June. The squadron was renamed the 54th Recovery Squadron in July 1965 to reflect its additional mission of recovering capsules ejected by various reconnaissance platforms. Little more than  six months later, along with all rescue and recovery units, it was renamed the 54th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. In 1967, the squadron moved to Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, where it continued the same mission until inactivating in June 1974. Missile support. The squadron was reactivated in 1993 as the 54th Rescue Flight, It provided security for the 91st Missile Wing's missile complex. It also transported security forces and equipment throughout the wing's missile fields and supported medical evacuation and rescue searches.