Active 1942-1962 Type Bombardment | Country United States | |
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Branch United States Air Force | ||
The 547th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit that saw service in World War II and the Cold War. It last was assigned to the 384th Bombardment Wing, stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, and was inactivated on 1 January 1962.
Contents
History
Established as a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber squadron, and trained under Second Air Force, the squadron was deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), and assigned to VIII Bomber Command in England, flying combat missions over Nazi Germany and occupied Europe until the German capitulation in May 1945.
After the war, the squadron was reassigned to Air Transport Command and used B-17s as transports for demobilized personnel, flying transport routes to French Morocco and the Azores before returning to Istres-Le Tubé Air Base in France. The squadron was inactivated in France during February 1946.
The 547th was activated as a B-29 Superfortress squadron in the reserves, 1947, but was not manned or equipped, and was inactivated in 1949 due to budget reductions.
The squadron was activated again in 1958 as a result of Strategic Air Command phasing out the B-47, which required additional squadrons to be activated as part of the consolidation of Stratojet wings and the replacement of the B-47 by B-52 Stratofortresses. In March 1961, President John F. Kennedy directed that the phaseout of the B-47 be accelerated, and the squadron was inactivated on 1 January 1962 as part of the drawdown of the USAF B-47 force, with the aircraft being sent to AMARC storage at Davis-Monthan.