422d Bombardment Squadron
The 422d Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 305th Bombardment Wing at Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana, where it was inactivated on 15 February 1961. History. World War II. Established in June 1942 as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombardment squadron; it trained under Second Air Force. The squadron deployed to the European Theater of Operations in September 1942, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England. It began flying long-range strategic bombardment missions on 17 November 1942 and attacked such targets as submarine  pens, docks, harbors, shipyards, motor works and marshalling yards in France, Germany and the Low Countries. Starting in 1943, the squadron began flying Nickeling missions, dropping leaflets over occupied territory. In June 1944 this mission, along with most of the squadron's personnel and aircraft, were transferred to the 858th Bombardment Squadron and the 422d returned to strategic bombing operations. It continued attacks on enemy cities, manufacturing centers, transportation links and other targets until the German capitulation in May 1945. After combat missions ended, the squadron moved to Sint-Truiden Airfield in Belgium in July 1945, where it conducted photo -mapping and intelligence-gathering flights over Europe and North Africa which came under the name Project Casey Jones. On 15 December 1945 it moved to Lechfeld Airfield, Germany which it had bombed on 18 March 1944 and which it now used as an occupation base. The 422d Bombardment Squadron was inactivated in December 1946 in Germany. Tactical bomber training. During the Korean War, Tactical Air Command trained aircrews at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The three squadrons of the 4400th Combat Crew Training Group performing this mission were Air National Guard units that had been called up for the war . At the start of 1953, these squadrons were released to state control and the 423d Squadron took over the mission, personnel, and equipment of the 115th Bombardment Squadron, which returned to the California Air National Guard. It was then equipped with obsolete North American B-45 Tornado light bombers. The squadron was inactivated in 1954. Strategic Air Command. From 1958, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet wings of Strategic Air Command (SAC) began to assume an alert posture at their home bases, reducing the amount of time spent on alert at overseas bases. The SAC alert cycle divided itself into four parts: planning , flying, alert and rest to meet General Thomas S. Power's initial goal of maintaining one third of SAC's planes on fifteen minute ground alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. To implement this new system B-47 wings reorganized from three to four squadrons. The 422d was activated at MacDill Air Force Base, Floria as the fourth squadron of the 305th Bombardment Wing. In June of that year, the unit moved to Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana. As the 305th Wing transitioned to the Convair B-58 Hustler, the squadron was  inactivated in February 1961.