72d Test and Evaluation Squadron - History

History

The squadron was formed in Texas in early 1918. After a period of training and organization, it departed from New York in the late summer of 1918, arriving in France in September. Its role during the latter part of World War I on the western front is undetermined, but it remained in France after the armistice until June 1919, arriving back in New York and subsequently demobilized in July.

Reorganized in 1923 as a reconnaissance squadron, assigned to 5th Composite Group in Hawaii Territory as part of the islands air defense organization. Assigned to Hawaii on Ford Island. Activities included training, participating in Army-Navy maneuvers, staging aerial reviews and sowing seeds from the air for the Territorial Forestry Division. In 1935, the squadron helped save the city of Hilo, Hawaii, during the eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano. Ten Keystone B-3 and B-4 bombers from the group’s 23d and 72d Bombardment Squadrons dropped 20, 600-pound bombs around the volcano to divert molten lava away from the town.

When the Navy moved its Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor in 1939, was reassigned to Hickam Field. Was equipped with a mixture of B-18 Bolos and early B-17C/D Flying Fortresses in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Hawaii. The group suffered devastating personnel and aircraft losses in the Pearl Harbor Attack, remaining in Hawaii until September 1942 re-equipping.

Deployed to the South Pacific, engaging in long-range bombing of enemy targets in the Solomon Islands and Central Pacific using Very Long-Range B-24 Liberators. participating in MacArthur's island-hopping campaign in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies. Participated in the Philippines Campaign, earning a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation for its actions in combat, 1944–1945. Inactivated at Clark Field, 1947 although most personnel had already returned to the United States.

Reactivated at Ladd Field, Alaska Territory in 1947 as a redesignation of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron with a mission to conduct strategic reconnaissance operations over the Arctic. The squadron's reconnaissance missions included electronic and weather monitoring flights used to track Soviet activities in the area. Between 1948-19499 the RB-29 Superfortresss of the 72nd SRS conducted numerous photographic reconnaissance and ELINT missions over the Soviet Arctic and Far East. Equipped with cameras that enabled then to remain in international airspace, whilst photographing targets deep inside Soviet territory, the aircraft searched for evidence of Soviet military activity, but unsurprisingly, found little going on in the inhospitable Arctic wastes but nobody knew what was happening further inland. To investigate activity deeper inside the Soviet Union, some RB-29s were stripped of all unnecessary equipment, allowing them to increase their operating ceiling, and began overflying Soviet territory.

President Harry Truman, authorized the first overflight on 5 August 1948 when an RB-29 took off from Ladd AFB and, after routing over Siberia and spending over 19 hours in the air, eventually landed at Yokota AB, Japan. Even longer flights soon became routine with aircraft operating up to 35,000 ft, covering 5000 miles and remaining airborne for occasionally up to 30 hours. Although the Soviet Military was equipped rudimentary radar, copied from World War II US supplied equipment, large gaps existed in their radar coverage, particularly over the vast Arctic region. These gaps were soon identified and exploited by the RB-29s as they penetrated deeper inside the Soviet Union. Although they were detected on many occasions, none of the RB-29s was ever intercepted because the early MiG-15 was the only fighter with sufficient performance to reach these high-flying aircraft and none of the new fighters were then stationed in Siberia.

The most significant of these missions included one on 3 September 1949 which identified the first evidence of a successful explosion of a Soviet nuclear weapon in the Semipalatinsk test site in Eastern Kazakhstan on 29 August 1949.

Reassigned to the Continental United States in 1951, being re-equipped with Very Long Range RB-36H Peacemaker strategic reconnaissance bombers and assigned to the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Fairfield-Suisun (later, Travis) AFB, California. The aircraft were equipped with four J47 jet engines and with fourteen K-17C, K-22A, K-38, and K-40 cameras. It also received some advanced electronics. Its normal crew was 22, which included 5 gunners to man the 16 M-24A-1 20-mm cannon. Conducted global strategic reconnaissance until 1955, conducting ELINT and Ferret missions along the east Asian coastline. Gradually shifting to bombardment training mission beginning in 1954 as the 72d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy, on 1 October 1955.

Flew B-36Js heavy bombers until their phaseout in 1958, being reassigned to SAC provisional 4134th Strategic Wing, being re-equipped with B-52F Stratofortress intercontinental heavy bombers. Was reassigned to Mather AFB, California by SAC to disperse its heavy bomber force. Conducted worldwide strategic bombardment training missions and providing nuclear deterrent. Was inactivated in 1963 when SAC inactivated its provisional Strategic Wings, redesignating them permanent Air Force Wings. Squadron was inactivated with aircraft/personnel/equipment being redesignated 441st Bombardment Squadron in an in-place, name-only transfer.

Reactivated as a B-52H heavy bomb squadron at Minot AFB, North Dakota in late 1994, but inactivated on 1 July 1996. Reactivated as a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber evaluation squadron in 1998.