Active 1955-1972 Type Strategic Airlift | Country United States | |
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Branch United States Air Force | ||
The 44th Military Airlift Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 60th Military Airlift Wing of Military Airlift Command at Travis Air Force Base, California.
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In 1965, the 44th was the first USAF squadron to receive the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter. It was inactivated on 1 March 1972.
World War II
The squadron was first organized during World War II in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations as a ferrying unit. It was disbanded in September 1943 and replaced by Station 10, North African Wing, Air Transport Command in a general reorganization of Air Transport Command.
Cold War
The squadron was reconstituted as the 44th Air Transport Squadron in 1953 at Grenier Air Force Base, New Hampshire, when Military Air Transport Service (MATS) assumed responsibility for the base from Air Defense Command. MATS operations at Grenier were short-lived, however and in November 1955 the squadron moved to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, where it was inactivated.
Reactivated in 1961 at Travis Air Force Base, California as a Boeing C-135 Stratolifter strategic airlift squadron, it operated these aircraft over the Pacific and around the world transport routes under MATS. It became the first organization to use jets while airlifting Bob Hope Christmas tours to the Far East in 1963. On 23 April 1965, the squadron received the first operational Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, which it operated over MATS and later Military Airlift Command routes on a worldwide basis, 1965-1972. The squadron frequently flew cargo and personnel to United States bases in South Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War. It was inactivated in 1972 due to budget restrictions as part of the post-Vietnam drawdown of the USAF.