The 559th Flying Training Squadron is an active United States Air Force squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. It operates the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II, and has trained instructor pilots at Randolph since 1972.
The squadron was first organized in January 1941 as the 81st Bombardment Squadron. After training in the United States, it moved to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it engaged in combat operations until 1944, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation. It then moved to the China Burma India Theater, continuing in combat until V-J Day. It returned to the United States and was inactivated at Fort Lawton, Washington on 22 January 1946. It was briefly activated in 1947, but budget considerations resulted in reductions of Air Force strength in Fiscal Year 1949, and the squadron did not equip or man.
In 1950, the squadron became the 559th Fighter-Escort Squadron, under this designation, and as the 559th Strategic Fighter Squadron, the squadron operated under Strategic Air Command (SAC) until July 1957, when SAC transferred its fighter units to Tactical Air Command. It deployed to England and Japan while under SAC control. Plans to upgrade its equipment were dropped, and the squadron was inactivated in January 1958.
The squadron was activated again in 1962 as the 559th Tactical Fighter Squadron. Although intended to become one of the Air Force's first McDonnell F-4 Phantom II squadrons, it was temporarily equipped with Republic F-84F Thunderstreaks until Phantoms became available in 1964. The squadron deployed to Okinawa in the summer of 1965 to augment air defenses in the Pacific. Shortly afterwards, in December 1965, the squadron moved to Vietnam, where it engaged in combat until inactivating in March 1970, earning five Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards with Combat "V" Device.
Mission The squadron trains instructor pilots utilizing the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II aircraft, which is used to teach pilots basic flying skills. The pilots who graduate from the squadron's pilot instructor training program are assigned to train undergraduate pilots at several Air Force installations. Each year, the squadron trains 220 pilots to become instructors in a four-month-long program. These upgrading instructors, who are experienced pilots, learn how to teach the basics of flying to undergraduate pilots.
History World War II Organization and initial operations The squadron was first activated as the 81st Bombardment Squadron at McChord Field, Washington on 15 January 1941 as the United States began building up its armed forces after the beginning of World War II in Europe, drawing its initial cadre from the 17th Bombardment Group.Stahura, p. 11 It was assigned to the 12th Bombardment Group. Although the 12th was designated as a light bomber group, the squadron was initially equipped with a mix of Douglas B-18 Bolo and Douglas B-23 Dragon medium bombers.Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 55–56Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 279
At the time of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron began flying antisubmarine patrols and watching for signs of an invasion. At the end of December 1941, the 12th Group was designated a medium bomber unit, consistent with its equipment. In February 1942, the group moved to Esler Field, Louisiana, where it began converting to the North American B-25 Mitchell. In early May, the 12th Group deployed to Stockton Army Air Field, California, where half its crews stood alert during daylight hours. After the defeat of the Japanese Navy in the Battle of Midway, the group returned to Esler Field.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 280
In June 1942, while in the United States for a conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made an urgent plea for military aid to help stop Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps from overrunning Egypt, the Suez Canal and the Arabian oil fields. The United States dispatched the squadron to the Middle East to reinforce the British forces there.Stahura, p. 13 Between 14 July and 2 August, aircrews departed Morrison Field, Florida, for Egypt via the South Atlantic ferry route to Egypt by way of Brazil, Ascension Island, across Africa to the Sudan, and then north to Egypt. By mid-August, all crews had arrived at Deversoir Air Base, Egypt without a single loss. Ground personnel left Esler Field by train on 3 July for Fort Dix, and sailed from New York City on 16 July 1942 on the for a month-long trip around South Africa and up the Red Sea to Suez, Egypt, arriving on 16 August 1942.
Western Desert Campaign
The squadron arrived at RAF Ismailia, Egypt, and began training with Royal Air Force (RAF) and South African Air Force Douglas Boston units in desert warfare tactics and navigation. A month of training included five combat missions in combined formations with the Bostons.Stahura, p. 16 It flew its first mission on its own on 31 August against enemy airfields at RAF El Daba (LG 105) and Fuka (LG 17) and port facilities at Matruh, Egypt.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 281
The unit's first missions were night attacks. However, the lack of flame dampeners on its Mitchells made them easy targets for flak defenses and night fighters. Losses caused the withdrawal of the unit from night operations until its planes could be modified with "finger exhausts". The unit's first missions were flown to support forces opposing Rommel's final effort to break through to the Suez Canal at the Battle of Alam Halfa between 31 August and 4 September 1942. Both Allied and enemy forces had learned that the open nature of the western desert made it easy to disperse armored forces, making pinpoint bombing ineffective. As a result, the 12th Group adopted the RAF tactic of pattern bombing. Group Mitchells would fly at medium altitude, flying spaced apart to saturate a target area with bombs spaced to damage any vehicles or other objectives in a defined target area.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 282
The RAF had established numerous Landing Grounds These landing grounds had no defined runways, and as many as eighteen bombers could take off at the same time, headed directly into the wind.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 283 In early October, intelligence reports reported that Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe airplanes at two of these landing grounds, near Daba (LG 105) and Qattafa (LG 104), had been trapped by heavy rains. The squadron forces attacked the airfields on 9 October, destroying ten enemy aircraft and damaging an additional 22.
A few days later, the squadron began flying missions from LG 88, about 20 miles from the front lines. This move made them immediately available for strikes requested by the British Eighth Army. Operations from LG 88 began just before the Second Battle of El Alamein began on 23 October. Eighteen ship formations from the 12th Group took off or landed every half-hour during daylight on 24 October. By 4 November, Rommel began to withdraw, and the squadron's main targets became columns of tanks, trucks, and troops retreating to the west. until rains bogged down the advance, permitting Rommel to withdraw to Tunisia. By 14 December, the squadron was operating from Magrun Landing Ground (LG 142), also called Gambut No. 2, a satellite of RAF Gambut (LG 139). The new base was within range of German bases on Crete.Tucker & Bledsoe, pp. 283-284
American forces under General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in Algeria and Morocco, and were met by German divisions under Rommel's command. The situation became desperate as they drove the Americans back through the Kasserine Pass. The squadron helped break up an attack along the Mareth Line.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 284 The squadron's actions during the North African campaign earned it a Distinguished Unit Citation for its operations from primitive landing grounds under difficult weather and terrain conditions and, despite repeated enemy attacks on its advanced positions and limited resources, made a major contribution to the defeat of enemy forces in the Middle East.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 285 (quoting from the unit citation)
Italian Campaign From Hergla Airfield, Tunisia, the squadron attacked targets on Pantellaria and Sicily. A little more than a month later, the squadron supported Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. The group's advance party boarded LSTs for Licata Sicily, where they set up their first base in Europe at Ponte Olivo Airfield, flying their first mission from Italy on 5 August. An attack on Randazzo on 13 August was the last significant action of the unit as part of the Ninth Air Force, which moved to England, and the squadron transferred to the Twelfth Air Force. Most aircrews had served enough time in theater that they were rotated back to the United States and replaced by new aircrews fresh from the States. Later in August, the group moved to Gerbini Airfield, from which it struck bridges, tunnels, and other targets to support Operation Baytown, the invasion of southern Italy. In September, the group flew missions every day to support the foothold around Salerno established during Operation Avalanche.Tucker & Bledsoe, p. 285
The squadron began operating out of Foggia Airfield, Italy, in November 1943. It attacked German targets in support of the American Fifth Army, and in eastern Italy supporting the British Eighth Army. It attacked aerodromes, docks, marshaling yards, bridges, and other targets in Italy and the Balkans. Prior to the end of January 1944, it participated in raids on harbor and dock facilities along the Yugoslavian Adriatic Coast, at Zadar, Split, and Šibenik. In addition, the squadron flew missions against the Mostar Main Airdrome and Eleusis Airdrome in Greece. The 81st Bombardment Squadron's final Italian Campaign mission took place on 30 January 1944 in an intended attack upon a road junction near Rome. A cloud covering completely obscured the target as the bombers approached; however, so they aborted the mission.
Shortly after the squadron moved to Gaudo Airfield in January 1944, it was directed to prepare for movement out of the Mediterranean Theater. On 8 February, the group sailed on the and the from Taranto. Although some in the group hoped the move was a withdrawal from combat, the ships sailed east, passing through the Suez Canal on the way to India.
Burma Campaign From Bombay it moved by train and a Ganges River boat to Tezgaon Airfield near Calcutta. Equipped with new bombers, it initiated a training program in low-level attack and bombing methods which were being used extensively in that area at the time.
The 81st entered combat on 16 April 1944 when it dispatched 12 B-25s in an attack upon railway sidings and a Japanese supply dump at Mogaung, Burma. One bomber was lost in the raid. Eight days later the 81st attacked Japanese stores and troop concentrations in the Kazu area. In May the it made numerous attacks upon the Tiddim Road in Burma, as well as on railway lines running north and east of Mandalay. Probably the unit's most significant mission during the month was its participation in the bombing of Ningthoukhong, Burma, a key position to the Japanese defensive line. The town was reported to have housed Japanese artillery pieces, antitank guns, tanks, and as many as 1,000 troops.
During the ensuing 12 months, the 81st helped to gain air superiority over the Japanese in Burma and provided support for Allied ground forces in driving them completely out of that country. The squadron's efforts were expended principally in bombing attacks on airdromes and airfields, headquarters buildings, roads, highway bridges, gun emplacements, railway bridges, rail junctions, marshalling yards, storage areas, and troop concentrations. Notable was the series of missions which contributed to the capture of Myitkyina by General Joseph W. Stilwell's ground forces early in August. The unit also participated in tactical operations during February and March 1945, helping to capture Miektila and Mandalay in May.