The 928th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron is a provisional unit of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed for contingency operations.
The squadron was first active during World War II as the 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron. After training in the United States the unit moved to the Pacific. Although squadron headquarters remained in Hawaii until the invasion of Okinawa, it deployed detachments to support combat operations in the Pacific. Its last wartime assignment was with the 316th Bombardment Wing at Yontan Airfield, Okinawa where it was inactivated on 29 May 1946.
The 928th Air Refueling Squadron was active from 1959 to 1960 at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota as the 28th Bombardment Wing converted to Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers. The squadrons were consolidated on 19 September 1985 and converted to provisional status as the 928th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron in 2003.
The squadron was first activated at Peterson Field, Colorado in the spring of 1943 as one of the original four squadrons of the 7th Photographic Group. It was transferred to the Third Air Force Photographic Unit Training Center a month later in preparation for the 7th group's transfer on paper to the European Theater of Operations.[1][2] Although the 28th was assigned other aircraft at times, its primary equipment was the Lockheed F-5 Lightning.[1]
The squadron was attached to the 2d Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping Group and moved with the group to Will Rogers Field in October 1943. The 2d group acted as an Operational Training Unit and as a Replacement Training Unit while the squadron was attached to it.[3] It was an oversized unit that provided cadres to "satellite groups" and at the same time trained individual pilots and aircrews.[4] The squadron continued to train with the F-5 until shipping overseas.[1]
In January 1944 the unit arrived in the Central Pacific Area. Although squadron headquarters remained in Hawaii until Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa in May 1945, it deployed elements that saw combat in the Central and Western Pacific from late June 1944. After arriving in Okinawa the 28th continued in combat until the Japanese surrender in August 1945. It remained on Okinawa as part of the occupation forces until it was inactivated in 1946.[1]
Post war operations
The 928th Air Refueling Squadron was activated at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota in 1959 as the refueling element of the 28th Bombardment Wing in 1959 as the wing converted from Convair B-36 Peacemakers to Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses.[5][6] The conversion of the 28th wing to "Buffs" and move of two of its bombardment squadrons to other bases was part of SAC's program to disperse its Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.[7] SAC bases with large concentrations of bombers made attractive targets. SAC's response was to break up its wings and scatter their aircraft over a larger number of bases.[8]
In July 1960 the squadron deployed eight of its tankers to Grand Forks Air Force Base, South Dakota to test the ability of the 4133d Strategic Wing at Grand Forks to maintain an air refueling alert force.[9] Two months after the return of these planes to Ellsworth, the squadron was inactivated and its mission, personnel, and equipment were transferred to the 28th Air Refueling Squadron.[6]
In 1985 the 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron and the 928th Air Refueling Squadron were consolidated into a single unit. In 2003 the consolidated squadron was converted to provisional status as the 928th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron.[10]
Lineage
28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron
Constituted as: 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on 5 February 1943
Redesignated as: 28th Photographic Squadron (Light) on 6 February 1943
Activated on 1 May 1943
Redesignated as: 28th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron on 11 August 1943
^Approved 2 August 1944. Description: Over and through a light pastel blue disc, border black, a caricatured red wolf holding and focusing a black aerial camera, while riding a light gray winged comet, leaving curved yellow speed trail toward sinisterchief, and diving toward small yellow sphere marked with blue land indications in sinister base, breaking through rim of disc, all between a yellow star and decrescent moon in dexter chief and a star of like color in sinister base.
^Aircraft is Lockheed F-5B-1-LO Lightning, serial 42-68225. Photo taken at East Field, Saipan, Mariana Islands, July 1944.
^ abcDepartment of the Air Force/MPM Letter 662q, 19 September 85, Subject: Reconstitution, Redesignation, and Consolidation of Selected Air Force Tactical Squadrons
^ abcdLineage information, including assignments, stations, and aircraft to 1946 in Maurer, Combat Squadrons', pp. 143–144, except as noted
Craven, Wesley F; Cate, James L, eds. (1955). The Army Air Forces in World War II. Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. LCCN48003657. OCLC704158.
Knaack, Marcelle Size (1988). Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems. Vol. 2, Post-World War II Bombers 1945–1973. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN0-912799-59-5.
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