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:
“That air would disappear from the whole earth in time, perhaps; but long after his day. He did not know just when it had become so necessary to him, but he had come back to die in exile for the sake of it. Something soft and wild and free, something that whispered to the ear on the pillow, lightened the heart, softly, softly picked the lock, slid the bolts, and released the prisoned spirit of man into the wind, into the blue and gold, into the morning, into the morning!”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)
“In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)