The 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron was a provisional United States Air Force unit, assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. During the 2010s, the squadron provided C-130 Hercules tactical airlift during the War in Afghanistan (2001-2021). The 774th EAS was inactivated on an unknown date prior to 2020–2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The squadron was first activated as the 774th Bombardment Squadron during World War II. After training in the United States with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers, it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it participated in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany, earning two Distinguished Unit Citations before inactivating in Italy.
The squadron was redesignated the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium and activated in January 1953, when it assumed the mission, personnel and aircraft of a reserve unit that had been called to active duty for the Korean War and was being released from active duty. The squadron provided airlift during a number of contingency operations, and in 1968, moved to the Philippines, from which its crews and planes rotated to Vietnam to provide airlift support during the Vietnam War. The squadron was reactivated the United States, where it continued airlift operations until inactivating in 1986. It was converted to provisional status as the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in 2001 and assigned to Air Combat Command to activate or inactivate as needed.
History World War II Training in the United States The squadron was first activated as the 774th Bombardment Squadron at Geiger Field, Washington on 1 August 1943 as one of the four original squadrons of the 463d Bombardment Group.Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 338-339 The 774th moved to Rapid City Army Air Base, South Dakota, where it received its initial cadre. On 1 September, the key personnel of the squadron and 463d Group moved to Orlando Army Air Base, where they participated in advanced tactical training with the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics. A model crew from the squadron moved to Montbrook Army Air Field to participate in simulated missions with a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. The cadre returned to Rapid City at the end of the month, where the ground echelon of the squadron was filled out and ground school begun.
The squadron moved to MacDill Field, Florida, in November and began flight training with the Flying Fortress, although its air echelon was not fully manned until early December. on 2 February, the squadron's ground echelon departed Florida for the port of embarkation at Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, for shipment to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, while the air echelon ferried their B-17s via the southern ferry route.
Combat in the Mediterranean Theater
The squadron arrived in Italy in March 1944 and flew its first combat mission from Celone Airfield on 30 March against an airfield at Imotski, Yugoslavia. It engaged primarily in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. It attacked targets like marshalling yards, oil refineries and aircraft factories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia.. The squadron was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for a mission against oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania, on 18 May 1944. Clouds that obscured the target resulted in Fifteenth Air Force recalling the mission, but the squadron and the rest of the 463d Group did not receive the recall message and was the only unit to continue on, causing major destruction to the target. Although crippled by intense fighter attacks, they also inflicted severe damage on the opposing air defenses. On 24 May 1945, the 463d Group led the 5th Bombardment Wing in an attack against a Daimler-Benz tank factory at Berlin, Germany. The squadron made a successful attack despite three separate attacks by enemy air defenses, including attacks by German jet fighters. This action earned the squadron its second DUC.
The squadron was occasionally diverted from its strategic mission to perform air support and air interdiction missions. In May and June 1944, it bombed bridges to support the campaign for the liberation of Rome. In August 1944, it struck bridges, gun positions and other targets to support Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. It hit military airbases, bridges and other tactical targets to support partisan forces and the Red Army advance in the Balkans. During the last months of the war the squadron operated primarily to support Operation Grapeshot, the spring 1945 offensive in Northern Italy.
The squadron flew its final combat mission on 26 April 1945. After V-E Day the squadron transported personnel (primarily soldiers of Fifth Army) from Italy to Casablanca for return to the United States. By early September, the unit had been substantially reduced by transfers to other units and returns of personnel to the United States and it was inactivated in Italy with the end of The Green Project in September 1945.
Airlift Operations Activation at Ardmore AFB
The squadron was redesignated the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium and activated at Memphis Municipal Airport, Tennessee on 16 January 1953. At Memphis, it absorbed the mission, personnel and Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars of the 347th Troop Carrier Squadron, a reserve unit that had been mobilized for the Korean War and was being returned to the reserves. In August, the squadron departed the civilian airfield at Memphis for the newly reopened Ardmore Air Force Base, Oklahoma.
The squadron airlifted equipment and supplies and supported Army airborne exercises. The squadron became the first unit to equip with the new Lockheed C-130A Hercules in 1956. In July 1958, president Camille Chamoun of Lebanon was facing an insurgency against his government and requested military assistance from the United States, which implemented Operation Blue Bat. The squadron, along with other elements of the 463d Wing, flew command elements of Nineteenth Air Force and other personnel and equipment of the Composite Air Strike Force to locations in the Middle East.Byrd, p. 16 The following month, the squadron provided airlift for the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis.
The Four Horsemen Hercules & The Four Horsemen vintage film 1960 The squadron also operated a Tactical Air Command (TAC) sponsored flight demonstration team beginning in 1957 known as The Four Horsemen utilizing 774th TCS aircrew and 463d Troop Carrier Wing C-130A/B aircraft. The Four Horsemen were the world’s only four engine per-aircraft demonstration team, flying four C-130's in tight formation, the team would perform a number of intricate maneuvers performed at an altitude of 500 to 1,000 feet that closed with a bomb burst — or as the team called it, Horseman Burst. Initially named Thunder Weasels, a tongue-in-cheek combination of the United States Air Force Thunderbirds and Green Weasels nickname of the squadron. Later, they settled on The Four Horsemen after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and University of Notre Dame's famous 1924 football offensive team. The Four Horsemen won official USAF recognition as an aerial demonstration team and performed their routine throughout the United States and overseas in Europe and the Far East until disbanding in 1960.
Sewart AFB & Langley AFB Operations Although Ardmore had only been open for six years, the Air Force decided to close the base again. The inactivation of the 513th Troop Carrier Wing, a Fairchild C-123 Provider unit at Sewart Air Force Base, Tennessee,Ravenstein, pp. 279-281 provided room for the 774th and the other operational units of the 463d Wing to move there. In September 1957, Tactical Air Command (TAC) converted the 463d Wing to the dual deputy system. The 463d Group was inactivated, and the squadron was assigned directly to the 463d Troop Carrier Wing. The squadron moved to Sewart in November 1958, and soon began replacing its C-130As with C-130B models. While at Sewart, the squadron provided airlift support during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. The squadron was again called on to provide emergency airlift support during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October and November 1962, transporting TAC support forces and materiel to Florida, Army units to stations in the southeastern United States and Marine reinforcements to Guantánamo Bay.Russell, p. 40
In July 1962, TAC established a Combat Crew Training School at Sewart. Starting with a single squadron, by the spring of 1963, the school had expanded to a full wing, the 4442d Combat Crew Training Wing. As a result of the expansion of the C-130 training unit, the 463d Wing reduced its operations at Sewart and the squadron became nonoperational on 27 December, remaining a paper unit until 1 April 1963, when it was again assigned personnel and equipment at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. From Langley, the squadron deployed crews and planes to support the US response during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in the late summer of 1964.Ravenstein, pp. 256-258 In late April 1965, the squadron participated in Operation Power Pack. Following a military coup in the Dominican Republic, Nineteenth Air Force formed an airlift task force to airlift the 82nd Airborne Division. On 28 and 29 April, the squadron flew to Pope Air Force Base to join the task force transporting elements of the 82nd Division to San Isidro Air Base. By September, peacekeeping functions had been transferred to Latin American counties' forces and the squadron helped return American forces to the United States.Warnock, Operation Power Pack, pp. 63-73
Vietnam War
While participating in Operation Power Pack, the squadron was also deploying forces to airlift personnel and material to Southeast Asia. In November 1965, the 463d Wing moved to Mactan Island Airfield, Philippines to provide this support full time, and the squadron moved with it.
The squadron deployed crews and planes operating combat airlift missions in Vietnam under the operational control of the 315th Air Division. The squadron also flew aeromedical evacuation missions. On 22 February 1967, the 774th flew missions supporting the Operation Junction City airborne assault force, airdropping heavy-equipment and supplies for 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment and 173rd Airborne Brigade ground forces. In August 1967, the squadron became the 774th Tactical Airlift Squadron, and in July 1968, the 463d Wing moved from Mactan to Clark Air Base, Philippines. The "Green Weasels" continued supporting combat missions in Vietnam including Operation Delaware, A Sầu Valley and A Lưới Camp airdrop resupply. Tragically, a 774th TAS C-130B, #60-0297 was lost in the 1968 Kham Duc C-130 shootdown incident May 12, 1968, during the evacuation and Battle of Kham Duc. Everyone on board, including 150 Vietnamese civilians, one U.S. Special Forces officer, and 5 U.S. Air Force crewmen perished. At the time, it was the deadliest aircraft crash in history, it currently remains the deadliest aviation incident on Vietnamese soil. The 463d began reducing its operations in June 1971 and was inactivated at the end of the year. The 774th was reassigned to the Clark host 405th Fighter Wing, until inactivating in September 1972.
Dyess AFB Operations On 1 August 1973, the squadron was reactivated at Dyess Air Force Base. The squadron deployed as a unit frequently to Europe, where it came under the operational control of the 513th Tactical Airlift Wing or the 313th Tactical Airlift Group in England or the 322d Tactical Airlift Wing or 435th Tactical Airlift Wing in Germany. The squadron flew humanitarian missions and participated in exercises. In October 1986, the squadron was inactivated.
Expeditionary Operations