The 964th Airborne Air Control Squadron is an active Air Force unit assigned to the 552nd Operations Group at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. It operates the Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft conducting airborne command and control missions.
The squadron's first predecessor was established in 1942 as the 362nd Bombardment Squadron. It participated in antisubmarine warfare and was the sole training unit for Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command as the 18th Antisubmarine Squadron. After the Navy assumed the antisubmarine mission, it trained aircrews on radar bombing systems as the 4th Search Attack Squadron until disbanding in a general reorganization of Army Air Forces training units in April 1944.
Its second forebear was organized in India as the 164th Liaison Squadron, part of the 1st Air Commando Group. It provided light transport and aeromedical evacuation in India and China, inactivating at the end of World War II.
The 964th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron was organized in 1944 to provide a seaward extension of the air defense system of the United States. It continued in this role until 1974. It was activated three years later in its current role as the 964th Airborne Warning and Control Squadron. In 1985, the three squadrons were consolidated into a single unit.
Mission The squadron provides worldwide response with the E-3 airborne warning and control aircraft. It provides combat commands with airborne systems and personnel for surveillance, warning and control of strategic, tactical, and special mission forces.
History Antisubmarine warfare
The first predecessor of the squadron was organized as the 362nd Bombardment Squadron at Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah in July 1942. It was one of the original squadrons of the 304th Bombardment Group. The squadron was only nominally manned until September, when it moved with the 304th Group to Geiger Field, Washington. The squadron moved to Ephrata Army Air Field, Washington, in October and equipped with a variety of light, medium, and heavy bombers.Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 30Maurer, Combat Units, p. 177
Later that month, the 304th Group moved to Langley Field, Virginia, where it became part of AAF Antisubmarine Command (AAFAC). In December AAFAC replaced its groups with two wings, aligned with the Navy Sea Frontiers they supported, and the squadron became part of the 25th Antisubmarine Wing.Ferguson, p. 41 From November, as the 18th Antisubmarine Squadron, the squadron became an Operational Training Unit (OTU) for antisubmarine warfare units, not only for the 25th Wing, but for the entire command.Ferguson, pp. 135-36 The squadron not only trained new crews, but also existing crews of antisubmarine squadrons to increase their proficiency and keep up with developing antisubmarine methods and new equipment.Ferguson, pp. 134-35 This included transition training in the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, which was becoming the command's primary operational aircraft,Ferguson, p. 219 and the one equipping the squadron.Ferguson, p. 294
By late summer 1943, the Navy had taken over the antisubmarine mission and the 25th Wing became nonoperational, while the squadron came under the control of the 1st Sea-Search Attack Unit.Ferguson, p. 83 In November 1943, The squadron was redesignated the 4th Search Attack Squadron and standardized on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. It became a Replacement Training Unit for radar guided search and attack missions. However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units like the 4th Squadron, whose manning was based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not well adapted to the training mission, even more so to the replacement mission. Accordingly, the Army Air Forces adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.Goss, p. 75 The squadron was disbanded in April 1944, and replaced by the 111th AAF Base Unit (Search Attack and Staging).See .
Liaison operations in the China-Burma-India Theater
The second predecessor of the squadron was organized as the 164th Liaison Squadron at Asansol Airfield, India in September 1944,Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 363 when the 1st Air Commando Group was reorganized to form squadrons from the sections of the group.Maurer, Combat Units, p. 19 it was equipped with Stinson L-5 Sentinel and Noorduyn C-64 Norseman aircraft.Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 363 Most of the squadron's pilots were enlisted. The squadron performed the supply, insertion, and medical evacuation missions critical to the success of the Air Commandos and the long range patrols they were created to support.Simmons, p. 9 The squadron deployed for short periods to airfields in Burma. It conducted visual reconnaissance, aeromedical evacuation, and light transport services for ground forces in Burma from 19 December 1944 until 3 May 1945. Although the squadron's L-5s were rated to operate out of airfields as short as to , when evacuating wounded, they frequently operated from strips as short as . From these short strips, they transported casualties to larger fields, where they could be transferred to larger Douglas C-47 Skytrains and Curtiss C-46 Commandos.Futrell, p. 315 The squadron's Sentinels were equipped with modified underwing bomb racks, which were used for mounting parachute packs to drop supplies when not even small landing areas were available.Van Wagner, p. 45 When flying reconnaissance missions, the 1st Air Commando Group's L-5s would use smoke to mark targets they had discovered so the group's fighters could immediately strike them.Van Wagner, p. 92
Following V-J Day, the squadron remained in India until October 1945, when it returned to the United States. It was inactivated at the Port of Embarkation upon its arrival in November.
Airborne early warning and control In designing the post-World War II air defense system, planners knew that the earlier the warning of approaching hostile bombers, the liklier it would be to intercept them. Because half of the vitally important potential targets were located within of the American coastline, the radar net needed to be extended seaward. Moreover, ideally the bombers could be engaged and destroyed before reaching American shores.Buss, p. 1 Ultimately, the Air Force decided to establish a wing on each coast to perform offshore patrols.Buss, p. 28
The 964th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron was activated in March 1955 at McClellan Air Force Base, California, along with the 963d Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron as the temporary 4712th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron was discontinued. As the warning and control mission at McClellan expanded, the 964th was assigned to the 552d Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing, which replaced a provisional wing in July.Buss, p. 38
Typical patrol missions were 11 to 13 hours long with 8 hours on station. They extended radar coverage out to sea.Buss, p. 33 While on patrol, squadron aircraft were under the operational control of the ADC headquarters responsible for the area in which they operated, rather than the 552nd Wing.Buss, p. 48 Late in 1958, the squadron also assumed the mission of performing gap-filler duty for temporarily inoperative ground radar stations. It tracked ballistic missiles in the Pacific after 1957 and supported space flight projects.
Cuban missile crisis Prior to the detection of Soviet missiles in Cuba, Air Defense Command (ADC) maintained one EC-121 in orbit between Cuba and Florida. On 17 October 1962, ADC deployed six additional EC-121s, including aircraft and crews from the squadron, to McCoy Air Force Base, Florida to augment the planes stationed there.NORAD/CONAD Participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, p. 6 This enabled the establishment of a second orbit station to detect aircraft from Cuba on 20 October and a third on 24 October.NORAD/CONAD Participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, pp. 10, 12 Although the quarantine of Cuba was lifted on 17 November, the augmented airborne warning force remained at McCoy and maintained DEFCON 3 until 3 December, when the additional aircraft and crews deployed to Florida returned to McClellan.NORAD/CONAD Participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, pp. 26, 29
Big Eye/College Eye Task Force
From April 1965, the squadron regularly deployed aircrew and aircraft to Thailand to support the Big Eye (later College Eye)Task Force. This deployment supported strike aircraft involved in Operation Rolling Thunder and Operation Barrel Roll in North Vietnam and Laos by warning them of the presence and location of enemy fighters and to warn them of possible encroachment of the Chinese border. Initially flights were flown in one of two stations over the Gulf of Tonkin. In October 1966, a station over Laos was added. The overwater flights were flown at very low altitudes ( to above the water. Starting in 1968, deployed aircraft also controlled strike aircraft in Laos. Individual deployments to the task force typically lasted four and a half months and continued through May 1974.
Draw down and inactivation As early as 1966, it became apparent that the Johnson Adminstration did not regard the threat of attack by manned bombers as an area justifying large expenditures.McMullen, p. 161 Ground radars in the south and midwest were shut down beginning in 1968McMullen, p. 168 In addition, an improved warning system based on the Boeing 707 was planned to replace the squadron's EC-121s. In 1972, over one quarter of ADC's EC-121 force was mothballed.McMullen, p. 198 As this drawdown continued, the squadron was inactivated on 1 July 1974.
Airborne air control As the updated warning system was implemented, the squadron was designated the 964th Airborne Warning and Control Squadron and activated with Boeing E-3 Sentrys on 1 July 1977 at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. The squadron provided airborne early warning, surveillance, command, control and communications, and battlefield services for US Armed Forces and allies. The squadron fulfilled this mission not only from its home base, but from geographical locations, worldwide. It participated in numerous military exercises, such as airborne battlefield command and control for tactical control centers, search and rescue, and maritime operations from October 1977. Starting in January 1979, it assisted United States Customs in drug interdiction. Its aircraft provided low-altitude radar coverage over large areas, observing drug traffic routes to reduce smuggling of narcotics into the United States.
During the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1989 it deployed its E-3s to Saudi Arabia to perform intelligence gathering missions. It flew Airborne Battlefield Command, Control and Communications (ABCCC) missions on airborne alert during Operation Urgent Fury, the 1983 replacement the of revolutionary government of Grenada and Operation Just Cause, the incursion into Panama in December 1989.
The squadron deployed to perform airborne warning and control operations in Southwest Asia for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, from August 1990 to March 1991. In January 1993, it returned to Southwest Asia to support deployed aircraft and crews to ensure that Iraq complied with the ceasefire terms. It also supported Operation Provide Comfort, airlift of humanitarian relief to Kurds fleeing Saddam Hussein, and Operations Northern and Southern Watch, the no fly zones in Iraq. It deployed again in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Elsewhere, it supported Operation Allied Force, the NATO operation against Serbia in Kosovo in 1999. Since October 2002, it has supported Operation Enduring Freedom, the Global War on Terrorism. It also flew missions in support of disaster relief efforts after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the US Gulf Coast in September 2005.
Lineage 4th Search Attack Squadron Constituted as the 362d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 28 January 1942 Activated on 15 July 1942