The 106th Air Refueling Squadron (106 ARS) is a unit of the Alabama Air National Guard 117th Air Refueling Wing. It is assigned to Birmingham Air National Guard Base, Alabama and is equipped with the KC-135R Stratotanker aircraft.
The squadron is a descendant organization of the World War I 106th Aero Squadron, established on 27 August 1917. It was reformed on 21 January 1922. After several designation changes, it was re-designated the 106th Observation Squadron on 16 January 1924 and is one of the 29 original National Guard Observation Squadrons of the United States Army National Guard formed before World War II.
History
World War I The 106th Air Refueling Squadron traces its origins to 26 August 1917 with the organization of the 106th Aero Squadron at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas. However, the unit was first formed about a week earlier when some Air Service recruits arrived at Kelly but remained an un-designated organization. The men were placed into basic indoctrination training, with drill, fatigue duty, classroom training, and other things that are done in military training camps. During its time at Kelly Field, men were transferred in and out of the squadron, depending on their qualifications and the needs of other units in training. Once basic indoctrination training was completed, the 118th was ordered for overseas duty, being ordered to report to the Aviation Concentration Center, Garden City, Long Island on 4 November. It was there that final arrangements were made for the trip overseas, complete equipment was drawn and a final few transfers were made.Series "E", Volume 25, History of the 800th–1111th Aero Squadrons. Gorrell's History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917–1919, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
At Garden City, the squadron was assigned to "Provisional Wing #2", which consisted of the 106th, 107th, 108th, 109th and 116th Aero Squadrons. On 7 December 1917, the wing boarded a train at Garden City, and went northwards to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it arrived on 12 December. The squadrons boarded the RMS Tunican and began its trans-Atlantic sailing, arriving at Liverpool, England on 26 December. It was snowing when the squadron arrived in England, and the men loaded onto a train, heading south through a blizzard, arriving at Southampton. There the men marched though the snow to a rest camp. On the 29th, the squadron crossed the English Channel, arriving in Le Havre, France later that day, marching in about a foot of snow to another rest camp. The squadron then traveled by train to the Replacement Concentration Center, AEF, St. Maixent Replacement Barracks, France, arriving on 2 January 1918. At St. Maixent the Provisional Wing was dissolved and the men put into barracks out of the snow with plenty of hot coffee. The 106th remained at St. Maixent until 26 February, its designation being changed to the 800th Aero Squadron.
On 26 February, the 800th Aero Squadron was divided into three flights, each of which would be able to function as an individual unit in the repair and upkeep of airplanes and engines.
Headquarters, Flight "A" was dispatched to the 5th Aerial Artillery Observation School (2d AAOS), Camp de Souge, Base Section No. 2, Bordeaux.
Flight "B" was dispatched to the 1st Aerial Artillery Observation School (1st AAOS), Camp Coëtquidan (Camp de Coëtquidan) a French military educational facility located in Guer, Morbihan département, in Brittany.
Flight "C" was dispatched to the 5th Aerial Artillery Observation School (5th AAOS), Camp La Valdehon, Doubs.
An effort was made to have each of the flights as nearly equal in skilled mechanics and other trained personnel as far as possible, each flight consisting of about 50 men. At this point, the history of the squadron may be said to be a combination of each of these separate flights.
Headquarters Flight "A" arrived at Bordeaux on 28 February and were taken to some brick barracks. The flight learned they would be the entire enlisted personnel of the 2d AAOS. The camp was policed from the entrance to the camp to the flying field, with weeds and underbrush cut to make the field usable for airplanes. A program of camp sanitation was begun and the men of the squadron performed many duties, from furnishing electrical power to the buildings as well as supplying the goods and services necessary for the operation of the school. The camp had the appearance of a well-kept US Army Post in the United States. In March, the first airplanes arrived at the school, Sopwith 1A2s. In September, ten Curtiss JN-4 trainers arrived from the United States, the JN-4s being the only ones in France. Some Dayton-Wright DH-4s arrived in early November from the Air Service Production Center No. 2, Romorantin Aerodrome. Flight "B" of the squadron was moved to Camp de Souge on 30 October and consolidated with Headquarters, Flight "A".
Flight "B" of the 800th Aero Squadron arrived at the 1st AAOS in Coëtquidan on 1 March 1918. Coëtquidan was, in fact, one of the largest artillery camps since the time of Napoleon and had recently been turned over to the United States Army. Some Americans had already arrived and assembled six ancient French planes, the men having completed courses of instruction at the Renault, Loraine, Dietrich, Farman and Breguet engine factories. The school was supplied with new aircraft, primarily SPAD observation planes from Romorantin Aerodrome. At the end of October, the flight was relieved from Coëtquidan and transferred to Bordeaux where it rejoined Headquarters, Flight "A".
Flight "C" of the 800th arrived at Le Valdahon, Doubs on 3 March. The men found the camp knee-deep in mud and still growing deeper. The men were taken to the Headquarters, 17th Field Artillery where they received a warm resection with warm meals and some comfortable quarters. The aviation camp, where the 5th AAOS was to be operated, however, had been unoccupied for months, and was in a severely dilapidated state. To make it even a half-way decent place seemed a hopeless task. However, orders were received to do so and construction materiel was received to put the camp into a serviceable condition. The barracks were overhauled, a kitchen built along with a mess hall. Men without carpentry or other construction skills were put into building serviceable streets and also erecting some hangars and cleaning up the airfield. On 21 April, the first Sopwith airplanes arrived from Tours Aerodrome. As time passed, additional facilities were built and conditions improved, to the point of building tennis courts in August. With the Armistice with Germany in November 1918, the 800th Aero Squadron was still divided at both locations, both remaining in France until well into 1919. Flights "A" and "B" returned home to the United States in May, while Flight "C" did not return until July 1919. They arrived at Mitchel Field, New York, where the squadron members were demobilized and returned to civilian life.Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the First World War, Volume 3, Part 3, Center of Military History, United States Army, 1949 (1988 Reprint)
Many additional World War I squadron photographs are available by clicking the Wikipedia Commons link to the right.
Alabama National Guard
On 21 January 1922 the 125th Squadron, Alabama National Guard, received federal recognition as a Corps Aviation unit. (It was re-designated the 135th Observation Squadron on 25 January 1923 and then it was re-designated the 114th Observation Squadron as an aviation unit the 39th Division on 1 May 1923. On 16 January 1924, it was re-designated the 106th Observation Squadron as an aviation unit in the 31st Division.) Maj. James A. Meissner, a World War I ace who had flown with Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, led the effort to form the unit and served as its first commander.
The early years were challenging. Land was donated for what would become Roberts Field. Steel was salvaged from old wartime hangars to build new hangars. Birmingham citizens donated money to defray construction expenses. Squadron members even returned their pay to the squadron to defray costs and supplied much of the labor themselves. In the first few years of operation, while constructing the facilities at Roberts Field, the Squadron participated in mine rescue work, began a program of providing aerial photographs of points of industrial and historical interest throughout Alabama, and provided the first Air Mail service in the State of Alabama. By 1929, the Squadron had transitioned from Major Meissner to W.V.M. Robertson Jr., and then to Lt. Col. Sumpter Smith. Under the command of Lt. Col. Smith in 1929, the Squadron rendered its "greatest service to the State of Alabama" when the entire Squadron was ordered to active duty for flood relief in south Alabama. Twenty-five officers and 100 men participated for 14 days and nights, flying a total of approximately 300 hours dropping food and medicine to marooned families. The airdrop of supplies was among the first of its kind in aviation history.
By 1930, the facilities at Roberts Field were long-since declared inadequate by numerous inspectors, but the Squadron did not have the funds to move. A steady campaign of publicity and pressure on legislative and local government was maintained until the decision was made to build new facilities for the 106th Observation Squadron at the Birmingham Municipal Airport as part of the government works project in 1934. When Colonel Smith moved up to the 31st Division, command of the Squadron passed to Henry Badham Jr., one of the founding members of the Birmingham Flying Club. On 16 January 1936, James Meissner, the father of the Alabama Air National Guard, died from pneumonia. The city held a memorial service involving a flyover by the planes of the unit he founded and his old friend and former World War I wingman, Eddie Rickenbacker, returned to Birmingham to be an honorary pall-bearer. Major Meissner is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1936, the 106 Aero Squadron was consolidated with the 106th Observation Squadron of the Alabama National Guard. It took nearly four years to complete the construction of the new home of the 106th Observation Squadron at the Birmingham Municipal Airport, but in 1938 the Squadron was finally able to move into its new quarters. Eventually, the base was named after the colonel who helped ensure its construction, Colonel Sumpter Smith.
World War II The 106th was ordered to active duty on 25 November 1940 as part of the buildup of the Army Air Corps after the Fall of France. Ordered to the 36th Street Airport, Miami, Florida after the Pearl Harbor Attack in mid-December 1941, the Guardsmen flew antisubmarine patrols over the Florida Atlantic coast until September 1942, also operating from Jacksonville and Savannah, Georgia.
Transferred to Third Air Force and moved to Tennessee in late 1942, the 106th began training for combat observation and liaison duties then as a medium bombardment squadron flying the B-25 Mitchell. This new mission was reflected in a name change when the 106 Observation Squadron was re-designated 106 Reconnaissance Squadron (Bombardment) on 2 April 1943. In late 1943, the 106th was deployed to the South Pacific Area (SPA) and arrived at Guadalcanal on 15 November 1943, the 106th immediately began performing its new bombing mission. In the Pacific Theater, the squadron engaged enemy forces in New Guinea; the Northern Solomon Islands; Bismarck Archipelago; on Leyte, Luzon and Mindanao in the Philippine Campaign, and also in southeast China. At the end of the war, the 100th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), the final wartime designation of the squadron, was inactivated in the Philippines on 11 December 1945.
For its combat service in the South Pacific, the 100th Bombardment Squadron was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation: Balikpapan, Borneo, 23–30 Jun 1945, and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.