Originally designated as 43d Air Division (Defense) when organized on 1 March 1952, the division was redesignated 43d Air Division on 18 March 1955. The unit was discontinued and inactivated, on 1 October 1957. The 43d Air Division assumed responsibility for the air defense of Southwestern Japan (Kyūshū, in March 1952. The 43d also included the western part of Honshū, and most of Shikoku), using radar, fighter aircraft, and ground weapons to prevent or disrupt enemy air attacks. It supported numerous exercises, some involving U.S. and British naval vessels, and training for the Japan Air Self Defense Force. The division also supervised electronic countermeasures (ECM), and weather reconnaissance missions. In the summer of 1957, when the Nagasaki area suffered severe flooding, the 43d assisted Japanese authorities and people by flying numerous airlift missions with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or division:
“After us they’ll fly in hot air balloons, coat styles will change, perhaps they’ll discover a sixth sense and cultivate it, but life will remain the same, a hard life full of secrets, but happy. And a thousand years from now man will still be sighing, “Oh! Life is so hard!” and will still, like now, be afraid of death and not want to die.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“O, if you raise this house against this house
It will the woefullest division prove
That ever fell upon this cursed earth.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)