368th Training Squadron

The 368th Training Squadron is a United States Air Force ground training unit, located at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The squadron reports to the 782d Training Group, part of the 82d Training Wing, at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas and conducts training for airmen in civil engineering, (including Engineering Assistant, Pavement and Equipment, and Emergency Management) as well as in Logistics Readiness in Ground Transportation.

The squadron was first activated in 1942 as the 368th Bombardment Squadron. After training in the United States, it became one of the first units to deploy to the European Theater of Operations to participate in the strategic bombing campaign against Germany. earning two Distinguished Unit Citations. After V-E Day, the squadron remained in Europe and participated in the photographic mapping of Europe and Africa until it was inactivated in 1946.

The squadron was reactivated in 1947 and served as a medium bomber unit with Strategic Air Command (SAC) until inactivating in 1963, as SAC drew down its medium bomber force.

History

World War II

Initial organization and training

The squadron was first established in March 1942 at Gowen Field, Idaho as the 368th Bombardment Squadron, one of the original four squadrons of the 306th Bombardment Group.Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 179–180 In April, its personnel moved to Wendover Field, Utah, where it began training with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers. On 1 August 1942, the squadron's ground echelon began its deployment, spending a week at Richmond Army Air Base, Virginia before moving to Fort Dix, New Jersey at the Port of Embarkation. It sailed on the on 30 August, arriving in Scotland on 5 September 1942. The air echelon departed for Westover Field, Massachusetts, and began ferrying their B-17s to England via the North Atlantic ferrying route.Freeman, p. 248

Combat in Europe

The squadron settled into its combat station, RAF Thurleigh, England, in early September. Although several bomber units arrived in England before the 368th, when these units left England to participate in Operation Torch it became, along with its companion squadrons of the 306th Group, the oldest bombardment squadrons of VIII Bomber Command. It few its first combat mission on 9 October 1942 against a steel factory near Lille, France, but with poor results. This was the first mission on which VIII Bomber Command assembled a strike force of over 100 bombers. The squadron operated primarily against strategic targets, including the locomotive factory at Lille, marshalling yards at Rouen, France, and Stuttgart, Germany. The squadron took part in the first strike into Germany by bombers of Eighth Air Force on 27 January 1943 when it struck U-boat yards at Wilhelmshaven. It struck shipbuilding yards at Vegesack, ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt, the aircraft factory at Leipzig, Germany, and similar facilities.

On 11 January 1944, the squadron participated in an attack on an aircraft plant in central Germany, near Brunswick. Extensive cloud cover had resulted in the recall of two of the three bombardment divisions involved in the mission and made the rendezvous of the fighter groups scheduled to provide cover in the target area difficult. In contrast, clear weather to the east of the target permitted the Germans to assemble one of the largest fighter formations since October 1943, with 207 enemy fighters making contact with the strike force. For this mission, the squadron was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC). The following month the squadron earned a second DUC for its performance during Big Week, an intensive bombing campaign against the German aircraft industry. Despite adverse weather on 22 February that led supporting elements to abandon the mission the squadron and group effectively bombed the aircraft assembly plant at Bernburg, Germany.

The squadron also performed in a tactical role, assisting ground forces Operation Cobra, the St Lo breakthrough, Operation Market Garden, the attempt to establish a bridgehead across the Rhine near Arnhem in the Netherlands, stopping German attacking forces in the Battle of the Bulge, and bombing enemy positions during Operation Varsity, the airborne assault across the Rhine in the spring of 1945.

After V-E Day, the squadron became part of the occupation forces and participated in Project Casey Jones, the photographic mapping of portions of Europe and North Africa. The 306th Group began to phase out of the project in July. In February 1946, the squadron moved to Istres-Le Tubé Air Base, France, where it absorbed elements of the inactivating 92d and 384th Bombardment Groups, returning to Germany in July. The squadron was inactivated in December 1946.

Strategic Air Command

Reactivated as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) Boeing B-29 Superfortress squadron at MacDill AFB, Florida in 1948, the squadron began upgrading to the new Boeing B-50 Superfortress, an advanced version of the B-29, in 1950. The B-50 gave the unit the capability to carry heavy loads of conventional weapons faster and farther; it was also designed for atomic bomb missions if necessary.

The squadron began receiving the first production models of the new Boeing B-47 Stratojet jet bomber in 1951 and despite initial difficulties, the Stratojet became the mainstay of the medium-bombing strength of SAC all throughout the 1950s. It began sending its B-47s to Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 1963 when the aircraft was deemed no longer capable of penetrating Soviet airspace. The 368th was not operational from 3 January through 1 April 1963.

Training unit

The Air Force had begun training certain civil engineering skills at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in the 1970s. After 1992, additional Air Force training in emergency management and ground transportation was moved to Fort Leonard Wood as well, with Detachment 1, 364th Training Squadron acting as the manager for this training. Eventually, the detachment became the largest in the Air Force, and in early 2018 Air Education and Training Command decided to expand the detachment and replace it with a full squadron. The squadron was redesignated the 368th Training Squadron and absorbed the personnel and equipment of the detachment in a ceremony on 17 October 2018.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 368th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 28 January 1942
: Activated on 1 March 1942
: Redesignated 368th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 20 August 1943
: Inactivated on 25 December 1946
* Redesignated 368th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 11 June 1947
: Activated on 1 July 1947
: Redesignated 368th Bombardment Squadron, Medium on 11 August 1948
: Inactivated on 1 April 1963Lineage information, including stations and aircraft, through March 1963 in Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', pp. 455-456, except as noted.
* Redesignated 368th Training Squadron
: Activated c. 17 October 2018

Assignments

* 306th Bombardment Group, 1 March 1942 – 25 December 1946
* 306th Bombardment Group, 1 July 1947 (attached to 306th Bombardment Wing after 10 February 1951)Ravenstein, pp. 151-153
* 306th Bombardment Wing, 16 June 1952 – 1 April 1963
* 782d Training Group, c. 17 October 2018 – present

Stations

* Gowen Field, Idaho, 1 March 1942
* Wendover Field, Utah, c. 6 April-1 August 1942
* RAF Thurleigh (Sta 111), England, c. 6 September 1942 (detachments operated from Gibraltar, 18 August 1945 – January 1946; Port Lyautey Airfield, French Morocco, February – 15 July 1946)
* AAF Station Giebelstadt (Y-90),Station number in Johnson. p. 34. Germany, 25 December 1945

* Istres-Le Tubé Air Base (Y-17), France, 24 February 1946 (detachment operated from: Dakar Airport, French West Africa, January–March 1946)
* AAF Station Fürstenfeldbruck (R-72), Germany, 16 August 1946
* AAF Station Lechfeld, Germany (R-71), 13 September-25 December 1946
* Andrews Field, Maryland, 1 July 1947
* MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, 1 August 1948 – 1 April 1963Mueller, p. 352
* Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, c. 17 October 2018 – present

Aircraft

* Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, 1942–1946
* Boeing B-29 Superfortress, 1948–1951
* Boeing B-50 Superfortress, 1950–1951
* Boeing B-47 Stratojet, 1951–1963

References

Notes

; Explanatory notes

; Citations

Bibliography

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* {{cite book, last=Watkins, first=Robert, title=Battle Colors: Insignia and Markings of the Eighth Air Force In World War II , volume=I (VIII) Bomber Command, year=2008, publisher=Shiffer Publishing Ltd., location=Atglen, PA, isbn=978-0-7643-1987-7

Training squadrons of the United States Air Force
Military units and formations in Missouri