459th Airlift Squadron

Mission

The squadron operates Bell UH-1N Twin Huey and Beechcraft C-12J Huron aircraft, performing passenger transport (including VIPs), aeromedical evacuation and search and rescue missions.

History

World War II

Bombardment training unit

The squadron was first activated at Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah on 6 July 1942 as one of the original four squadrons of the 330th Bombardment Group. Although equipped early on with some Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, it became a Consolidated B-24 Liberator Operational Training Unit (OTU), moving to Biggs Field, Texas by early September. It then assumed responsibility for their training and oversaw their expansion with graduates of Army Air Forces Training Command schools to become effective combat units. Phase I training concentrated on individual training in crewmember specialties. Phase II training emphasized the coordination for the crew to act as a team. The final phase concentrated on operation as a unit.

By early 1944 most units had been activated and almost three quarters of them had deployed overseas. With the exception of special programs, like forming Boeing B-29 Superfortress units, training “fillers” for existing units became more important than unit training. The squadron then became a Replacement Training Unit (RTU). RTUs were also oversized unit, but their mission was to train individual pilots or aircrews.

However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units like the 459th, whose manning was based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving 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. As a result, the 330th Bombardment Group and its components, including the 459th, along with all supporting units at Biggs were inactivated or disbanded on 1 April 1944

B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan

The squadron was activated the same day at Walker Army Air Field, Kansas as a Boeing B-29 unit. While waiting for new B-29s to come off the production line, it again flew B-17 Flying Fortresses for a short time. It trained at Walker and at Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas until January 1945, when it deployed to the Pacific.

The squadron arrived at its combat station, North Field, Guam in the Mariana Islands in early February 1945. It flew its first combat mission, an attack on the Hodogaya chemical plant in Koriyama, Japan on 12 April 1945.

During April and May 1945, the squadron was diverted from the strategic campaign against Japan to support Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa.

The squadron resumed attacking urban industrial areas until the end of the war in August 1945. It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for incendiary raids on the industrial sections of Tokushima and Gifu and a strike against the hydroelectrical power center at Kofu in July 1945. It received a second DUC for a mission attacking the Nakajima aircraft engine plant at Musashino near Tokyo in August.

Following V-J Day the squadron dropped food and supplies to Allied prisoners of war and participated in several show of force missions over Japan. It departed the theater in November and was inactivated at Camp Anza, the Port of Embarkation in December 1945.

Air Force reserve

The reserve mobilization for the Korean War had left the reserve without aircraft. In September 1951, Continental Air Command (ConAC) formed the 917th Reserve Training Wing to train reservists at Greater Pittsburgh Airport, Pennsylvania. Anticipating the return of mission aircraft to reserve units, ConAC replaced the 917th Wing with the 330th Troop Carrier Wing on 14 June 1952. The squadron was redesignated the 459th Troop Carrier Squadron and activated the same day. The 459th was inactivated and transferred its personnel to the 57th Troop Carrier Squadron, which was simultaneously activated.

Vietnam War

In August 1966, the Air Force and the Army began implementing Project Red Leaf, which would transfer responsibility for the de Havilland Canada C-7 Caribou from the Army to the Air Force following the Johnson-McConnell agreement of 1966. At Qui Nhon Airfield, South Vietnam, Air Force personnel began being assigned to the 92nd Aviation Company. The Department of Defense had ordered that the 483d Tactical Airlift Wing's new squadrons be located on Air Force installations, not on Army posts, and the cadre of the wing at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base began planning to move squadron level operations from the small Army camps they were operating from to permanent sites when the Air Force units were activated. In December, the company began moving to Phu Cat Air Base, although Phu Cat only had a 3000 ft laterite strip at the time and it was not until April that permanent facilities and a 10000 ft runway was ready for use. On 1 January 1967, the 459th Squadron was organized and took over Caribou operations from the 92nd Company.

The squadron provided intratheater airlift to support United States military civic actions, combat support and civic assistance throughout the Republic of Vietnam. This included airland and airdrop assault missions. It also maintained detachments at Da Nang Air Base and Pleiku Air Base.

In April 1970, the squadron helped break the siege of Dak Seang Special Forces Camp. North Vietnamese forces had surrounded the camp, and learning from the success of air resupply during their 1969 attack on the Ben Het Camp, also established anti-aircraft artillery positions along likely air resupply corridors. On the first day of the siege, two C-7s were diverted from their scheduled missions and staged out of Pleiku to make the first airdrops to the camp. Resupply of the camp was so urgent that all drop-qualified crews of the 483rd Tactical Airlift Wing were ordered to Pleiku to support the operation and eleven sorties were flown that day with cover from Douglas A-1 Skyraiders. Crews approached the camp from the north or south to use terrain to mask their approaches from enemy flak. Loss of the third Caribou in five days prompted a move to resupply the camp with night drops, with cover and illumination provided by Fairchild AC-119 Stinger gunships. All 483rd Wing squadrons participated in the operation. It earned a second Presidential Unit Citation for this action, evacuation of over 2000 refugees from Cambodia, and transportation of the Presidential Southeast Asia Investigation Team to various remote locations in South Vietnam.

The squadron was inactivated in June 1970 with the beginning of the withdrawal of the United States military from Viet Nam.

Administrative airlift

Operations in the western United States

The second predecessor of the squadron was activated at Norton Air Force Base, California on 1 April 1975 as the 1400th Military Airlift Squadron and assigned to the 89th Military Airlift Wing. The Air Force also decided the administrative airlift fleet would become all jet, using North American T-39 Sabreliners, although the 459th also flew turboprop powered Beechcraft C-12 Hurons. In 1978, the administrative airlift squadrons transferred to the 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing, and until 1991, it also flew aeromedical evacuation missions. In 1984, it converted from the Sabreliner to the Learjet C-21. In December 1991, the two squadrons were consolidated as the 459th Airlift Squadron.

In 1989, the Base Closure Commission recommended that Norton be closed. As a result, in October 1992 the squadron moved to nearby March Air Force Base, California, where it was assigned to the 22d Operations Group. However, March was shortly being transferred to Air Force Reserve Command. As a result, the squadron was inactivated on 1 October 1993.

Operations in the Pacific

The squadron was activated the same day at Yokota Air Base, Japan, where it was equipped with Bell UH-1N Twin Hueys. It operates four of them. In 2016, two of the squadron's Twin Hueys were equipped with hoists, giving them the ability to participate in search and rescue missions. Until 2007, it also operated the C-21 Learjet. It swapped them for C-12J Hurons, and operates 75% of the Air Force's "J" model Hurons. Since 2017, the squadron's C-12Js have been the primary aeromedical evacuation aircraft in the western Pacific. In August 2025, the squadron flew its last sortie with the UH-1 helicopter. No direct replacement helicopter is programmed for the squadron's short range airlift.{{cite web |url= https://theaviationist.com/2025/08/31/yokota-farewell-to-huey/?utm_source=mailerlite_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-09-03&utm_campaign=+here+are+the+latest+stories+from+The+Aviationist+ |last1=Greet|first1=Kai|title= Yokota Air Base Bids Farewell to UH-1N Huey|date=August 31, 2025|publisher=The Aviationist|access-date=September 2, 2025}}

Lineage

459th Airlift Squadron

• Constituted as the 459th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 1 July 1942 : Activated on 6 July 1942 : Inactivated on 1 April 1944
• Redesignated 459th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy and activated on 1 April 1944 : Inactivated on 21 December 1945
• Redesignated 459th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium on 26 May 1952 : Activated in the reserve on 14 June 1952 : Inactivated on 14 July 1952
• Redesignated 459th Troop Carrier Squadron and activated, on 12 October 1966 (not organized) : Organized on 1 January 1967 : Redesignated 459th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 August 1967 : Inactivated on 1 June 1970
• Consolidated with the 1400th Military Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991 as the 459th Airlift Squadron : Inactivated on 1 October 1993 : Activated on 1 October 1993

1400th Military Airlift Squadron

• Designated as the 1400th Military Airlift Squadron and activated on 1 April 1975
• Consolidated with the 459th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 December 1991 as the 459th Airlift Squadron

Assignments

• 330th Bombardment Group, 6 July 1952 – 1 April 1944
• 330th Bombardment Group, 1 April 1944 – 27 December 1945
• 330th Troop Carrier Group, 14 June 1952 – 14 July 1952
• Pacific Air Forces, 12 October 1966 (not organized)
• 483d Troop Carrier Wing (later 483d Tactical Airlift Wing), 1 January 1967 – 1 June 1970
• 89th Military Airlift Wing, 1 April 1975
• 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing (later 375th Military Airlift Wing), 15 March 1978
• 375th Operations Group, 1 December 1991
• 22d Operations Group, 1 April 1993 – 1 October 1993
• 374th Operations Group, 1 October 1993 – present

Stations

• Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah, 6 July 1942
• Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico, 1 August 1942
• Biggs Field, Texas, 2 September 1942
• Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico, 29 November 1942
• Biggs Field, Texas, 5 April 1943 – 1 April 1944
• Walker Army Air Field, Kansas, 1 April 1944
• Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas, 25 May 1944
• Walker Army Air Field, Kansas, 1 August 1944 – 7 January 1945
• North Field, Guam, Mariana Islands, 18 February – 19 November 1945
• Camp Anza, California, c. 18–27 December 1945
• Greater Pittsburgh Airport, Pennsylvania, 14 June 1952 − 14 July 1952
• Phu Cat Air Base, South Vietnam, 1 January 1966 – 1 June 1970
• Norton Air Force Base, California, 1 April 1975
• March Air Force Base, California, 15 October 1992 – 1 October 1993
• Yokota Air Base, Japan, 1 October 1993 – present

Aircraft

• Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress (1942, 1944)
• Consolidated B-24 Liberator (1942–1944)
• Boeing B-29 Superfortress (1944–1945)
• de Havilland Canada C-7 Caribou (1967–1970)
• North American T-39 (later CT-39) Sabreliner (1975–1984)
• Learjet C-21 (1984-1993, 1993–2007)
• Beechcraft C-12 Huron (2007–present)
• Bell UH-1N Twin Huey (1993–2025)

Awards and campaigns

References

Notes

; Explanatory notes

; Citations

Bibliography

• {{cite book| editor1=Craven, Wesley F|editor2=Cate, James L |url=https://media.defense.gov/2010/Nov/05/2001329890/-1/-1/0/AFD-101105-012.pdf |access-date=December 17, 2016 | title=The Army Air Forces in World War II|volume=V, The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki :*

:* :*

References

1. (5 April 2012). "Factsheet 459 Airlift Squadron (PACAF)". Air Force Historical Research Agency.
2. Endicott, p. 823
3. (August 18, 2002). "‘Operation Friendship’ set for takeoff". the japan times.
4. Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 210-11
5. Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', pp. 563-67
6. Goss, p. 74
7. Greer, p. 601
8. Greer.p. 606
9. Goss, pp. 74-75
10. Goss, p. 75
11. It struck air bases from which [[kamikaze]] attacks were being launched. Many of these bases were located on [[Kyushu]], only 300 miles from Okinawa. The attacks directly impacted kamikaze launches, but also forced the Japanese military to retain [[fighter aircraft]] to defend the [[Japanese Special Attack Units]] that otherwise might have been used to challenge [[air superiority]] over Okinawa.Cate & Olson pp. 641
12. Cantwell, p. 139
13. Ravenstein, p. 178
14. Bowers, pp. 353-355
15. Bowers, p. 357
16. Ravenstein, pp. 268-70
17. The Da Nang detachment undertook many of the tasks in the northern area of South Viet Nam formerly performed by [[Fairchild C-123 Provider]]s.{{efn. The [[311th Air Commando Squadron]] with C-123s was located at Da Nang. It made runs to [[Civilian Irregular Defense Group]] camps and the US Army posts nearby. The Pleiku detachment not only supported nearby [[special forces]] units, but flew a daily passenger run linking Pleiku, [[Camp Holloway]], [[Qui Nhon Airfield]], [[Tuy Hoa Air Base]] and Cam Ranh Bay. In the summer of 1967, Pleiku operations were taken over by the [[457th Airlift Squadron. 457th]] and [[458th Tactical Airlift Squadron]]s, operating from Cam Ranh Bay as the squadron shifted its operations to the coastal provinces north of [[Qui Nhon]].Bowers, pp. 360, 364
18. No byline. "Abstract, History 483d Tactical Airlift Wing, Apr–Jun 1970". Air Force History Index.
19. Bowers, pp. 527-32
20. (12 April 2014). "Factsheet 535 Airlift Squadron (PACAF)". Air Force Historical Research Agency.
21. No byline. (December 3, 2004). "Yokota deems UH-1N copters 'completely safe'". 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs.
22. Scott, A1C Delano. (March 2, 2016). "Yokota AFB UH-1N New Rescue Hoists". 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs.
23. No byline. (June 2010). "C-12 Huron". 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs.
24. Bolfing, A1C Brieana E.. (April 11, 2020). "459th Airlift Squadron: a life-saving evacuation team". 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs.
25. "Air Force Personnel Services: Unit Awards". Air Force Personnel Center.