History
The 54th Transport Squadron was activated at Hamilton Field, California, but moved to Bowman Field, Kentucky, in June 1942, as the 54th Troop Carrier Squadron. Successive reassignments were to Florence, South Carolina, in August 1942, and to Elmendorf Field, Alaska, until inactivation on 5 March 1949. That inactivation lasted only six months and on 20 September 1949, the unit was activated again at Elmendorf and again moved to Donaldson Air Force Base, South Carolina, in July 1956, remaining in service until 25 June 1965. While there the 54th deployed to Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany, to support the Berlin Airlift.
On 14 April 1972, the 54th received a new mission and name. It became the 54th Flying Training Squadron, and was reassigned to Reese Air Force Base, Texas, with an official activation date of 1 October. Here personnel trained new pilots in the T-38 Talon until the 54th was once again inactivated in April 1997.
The 54th Air Refueling Squadron was reactivated at its current home of Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma on 16 January 1998. The 54th Air Refueling Squadron the only KC-135R flying training squadron in AETC. The 54th Air Refueling Squadron provides KC-135R initial and advanced flight qualification. The squadron's mission continues to encompass the training of all active duty, guard, reserve and international KC-135 crewmembers. Over 70 instructors train 450 pilot and boom operator students annually for the Department of Defense and international customers.
Read more about this topic: 54th Air Refueling Squadron
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)