The 48th Air Transport Squadron is an inactive

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

unit. Its last was assigned to the

1502d Air Transport Wing The 1502d Air Transport Wing is a discontinued United States Air Force unit, last assigned to Western Transport Air Force in January 1966. The 1502d ATW was a heavy cargo transport wing of the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), formed at ...

Military Air Transport Service The Military Air Transport Service (MATS) is an inactive Department of Defense Unified Command. Activated on 1 June 1948, MATS was a consolidation of the United States Navy's Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) and the United States Air Force's ...

, stationed at

Hickam Air Force Base Hickam Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation, named in honor of aviation pioneer Lieutenant Colonel Horace Meek Hickam. The installation merged in 2010 with Naval Station Pearl Harbor to become part of the newly formed Joint ...

, Hawaii. It was inactivated on 25 June 1965.

History

The squadron was first organized during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a ferrying squadron in the

Mediterranean Theater of Operations The Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army (MTOUSA), originally called the North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), was a military formation of the United States Army that supervised all U.S. Army forc ...

. Reestablished as the 48th Air Transport Squadron in 1952 to replace the 1264th Air Transport Squadron, which had been organized in 1948 as the 2d Air Transport Squadron, a

Douglas C-54 Skymaster The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian a ...

transport squadron. That squadron was redesignated on 1 October 1948 to comply with the requirement that Table of Distribution units be numbered with four digits. Upgraded to

Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter was a long-range heavy military cargo aircraft developed from the B-29 and B-50 bombers. Design work began in 1942, the first of three prototype XC-97s flew on 9 November 1944 (none saw combat), and the first of s ...

and

Douglas C-124 Globemaster II The Douglas C-124 Globemaster II, nicknamed "Old Shaky", is an American heavy-lift cargo aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. The C-124 was the primary heavy-lift transport for United States Air Force (USAF ...

long distance intercontinental transports. Flew over MATS Pacific routes from Hawaii until inactivated in 1965 with the phaseout of the C-124.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 48th Ferrying Squadron : Activated c. 9 July 1942 : Redesignated 48th Transport Squadron c. 29 March 1943 * Disbanded on 20 September 1943 * Reconstituted as the 48th Air Transport Squadron, Heavy on 20 June 1952 : Activated on 20 July 1952 * Redesignated 48th Air Transport Squadron, Medium on 1 April 1960 : Discontinued and inactivated on 25 June 1965

Assignments

* 14th Ferrying Group, c. 9 July 1942 – 20 September 1943 * 1500th Air Transport Group (later 1502d Air Transport Group), 20 July 1952 *

, 1 May 1958 - 20 Jul 1952

Stations

* Bathurst, Gambia, c. 9 July 1942 *

Marrakech Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

, French Morocco, c. February 1943 – 20 September 1943 *

, Hawaii, 20 July 1952 - 25 June 1965Mueller, p. 235

Aircraft

* Douglas C-54 Skymaster, 1948-1949 * Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, 1949-1956 * Douglas C-118, 1956-1965 * Douglas C-124 Globemaster, 1955-1965

References

Notes

Bibliography

* {{cite book, last=Mueller, first=Robert, title=Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982, url= http://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/21/2001330255/-1/-1/0/AFD-100921-026.pdf , year=1989, publisher=Office of Air Force History, location=Washington, DC, isbn=0-912799-53-6 0048 Military units and formations in Hawaii