1st Airborne Command Control Squadron

The 1st Airborne Command Control Squadron is part of the 595th Command and Control Group at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. It operates the Boeing E-4 aircraft conducting airborne command and control missions.

1st Airborne Command Control Squadron
1st Airborne Command Control Squadron Boeing E-4 in flight
Active	1917–1922; 1929–1942; 1942–1944; 1969–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Airborne Command and Control
Part of	Air Force Global Strike Command Eighth Air Force 595th Command and Control Group
Garrison/HQ	Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska
Engagements	World War I – Western Front World War II – American Theater Global War on Terrorism[1]
Decorations	Air Force Meritorious Unit Award Air Force Outstanding Unit Award[1]
Insignia
1st Airborne Command Control Squadron emblem[note 1][1]
1st Ferrying Squadron emblem

The squadron is one of the oldest in the United States Air Force, its origins dating to 25 September 1917, when it was organized at Fort Omaha, Nebraska. It served overseas in France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. The squadron saw combat during World War II, and became part of the Strategic Air Command during the Cold War.

History

World War and Balloon School

The first predecessor of the squadron was organized at Fort Omaha Nebraska in September 1917 as Company A, 2d Balloon Squadron. Two months later it departed for overseas service on the Western Front (World War I), arriving in France in January 1918. It entered combat as an observation unit with the French Eighth Army on 19 April 1918, operating observation balloons over the front lines. Once forces of the American Expeditionary Forces, had built up, it continued to operate as the 1st Balloon Company with the American I Corps until 17 October 1918. Following the end of the war, it served with III Corps as part of the occupation forces until April 1919.^[1]

Interwar years

In the spring of 1919, the squadron returned to the United States and was stationed at Ross Field, California as part of the Air Service Balloon School.^[1] In June 1922, the Balloon School moved to Scott Field, Illinois and Ross Field was closed as a military installation. The squadron was inactivated^[1] with the closure of Ross.

The second predecessor of the squadron, also designated the 1st Balloon Company, was activated at Scott in May 1929. After a brief period of training with the 21st Airship Group at Scott, it moved to Post Field, located on Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where it was assigned to the Field Artillery School.^[1] It trained and conducted exercises with the school. At the beginning of World War II, it operated barrage balloons, but that mission was assigned to the coast artillery and the squadron was disbanded two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

World War II

The third predecessor of the squadron was activated in April 1942 at Long Beach Army Air Base as the 1st Air Corps Ferrying Squadron, the location of a Douglas Aircraft Company manufacturing plant. It ferried aircraft from the Douglas factory and other factories in the Western Procurement District to overseas departure points.^[1] However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not well adapted to the training and logistics support mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.^[2] In March 1944, Air Transport Command units assigned to the 6th Ferrying Group were combined into the 556th AAF Base Unit.

Airborne command and control

On 1 June 1962, Headquarters Command organized the 1000th Airborne Command Control Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base to operate the National Emergency Airborne Command Post and assigned it to the 1001st Air Base Wing.^[3][4] By 1965, the squadron was operating Boeing EC-135 aircraft to support this mission.^[5] On 1 July 1969, the 1st Airborne Command Control Squadron was activated and assumed the mission, personnel and equipment of the 1000th Squadron.^{[note 2]}

In 1974, the squadron began to replace its EC-135s with more capable Boeing E-4s, completing the upgrade the following year. In November 1975, the squadron was reassigned from Andrews' 1st Composite Wing to the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. On 1 July 1977, it moved to join the 55th Wing at Offutt^{[note 3][1]} On 1 October 2016, the unit was reassigned to the newly activated 595th Command and Control Group under the control of Air Force Global Strike Command.^[6]

Lineage and assignments

Consolidation

The 1st Airborne Command Control Squadron represents the consolidation of ultimately four different units, done in two consolidations. The first involved consolidating the 1st Airship and 1st Balloon Companies in 1929 into what would become the 1st Balloon Squadron. This was then consolidated with the 1st Ferrying Squadron and 1st Airborne Command Control Squadron in 1985 to form the current unit.

Current unit	Units consolidated on 19 September 1985	Units consolidated on 31 July 1929
1st Airborne Command Control Squadron	1st Balloon Squadron	1st Airship Company
		1st Balloon Company
	1st Ferrying Squadron
	1st Airborne Command Control Squadron

1st Airship Company

Date	Designation	Assignment	Station	Equipment	Notes
25 September 1917	Company A, 2d Balloon Squadron		Fort Omaha, Nebraska		organized[1]
30 November 1917			Garden City, New York		[1]
7 December 1917			transit		[1]
3 January 1918			Gironde, France	Caquot Type R observation balloon	[1]
15 April 1918			Brouville, France		[1]
19 June 1918	1st Balloon Company				[1]
July 1918		Balloon Wing, I Army Corps			[1]
19 July 1918			Les Ecoliers, France		[1]
22 July 1918			Épaux-Bézu, France		[1]
25 July 1918			Épieds, Aisne, France		[1]
28 July 1918			Artois Ferme, France		[1]
5 August 1918			Mareuil-en-Dole, France		[1]
13 August 1918			Coucelles-sur-Vesle, France		[1]
23 August 1918			Tremblecourt, France		[1]
29 August 1918			La Queue de Theinard, France		[1]
27 September 1918			Bois de Brule, France		[1]
2 October 1918			Varennes-en-Argonne, France		[1]
8 October 1918		Balloon Group, I Army Corps			[1]
11 October 1918			Chatel-Chehery, France		[1]
17 October 1918			Auzeville-en-Argonne, France		[1]
20 November 1918		Balloon Group, III Army Corps			[1]
21 November 1918			Mercy-le-Bas, France		[1]
8 December 1918			Euren, Germany		[1]
19 December 1918			Niederberg, Germany		[1]
17 April 1919			Colombey-les-Belles, France		[1]
5 May 1919			St. Nazaire, France		[1]
6 June 1919			Camp Lee, Virginia		[1]
July 1919		Air Service Balloon Observers School	Ross Field, California		[1]
30 June 1922		Ninth Corps Area			[1]
25 July 1922		inactive			[1]
24 March 1923	1st Airship Company				[1]
31 July 1929		consolidated into 1st Balloon Company			[1]

1st Balloon Squadron

Date	Designation	Assignment	Station	Equipment	Notes
18 October 1927	1st Balloon Company	inactive			[1]
17 May 1929		Sixth Corps Area	Scott Field, Illinois	A-6 & A-7 spherical balloon C-3 observation balloon	[1]
June 1929		Field Artillery School			[1]
24 June 1929			Post Field, Oklahoma		[1]
1 October 1933	1st Balloon Squadron				[1]
1937				A-6 & A-7 spherical balloon C-3 & C-6 observation balloon	[1]
1939				A-6 & A-7 spherical balloon C-3 & C-6 observation balloon D-2 barrage balloon	[1]
1940				A-6 & A-7 spherical balloon C-6 observation balloon D-3, D-4, D-5, & D-6 barrage balloon	[1]
1 September 1941		III Air Support Command			[1]
6 February 1942		disbanded			[1]
19 September 1985		reconstituted and consolidated into 1st Airborne Command Control Squadron			[1]

1st Ferrying Squadron

Date	Designation	Assignment	Station	Equipment	Notes
18 February 1942	1st Air Corps Ferrying Squadron	inactive			[1]
15 April 1942		6th Ferrying Group	Long Beach, California	various aircraft	[1]
12 May 1943	1st Ferrying Squadron				[1]
1 April 1944		disbanded			[1]
19 September 1985		reconstituted and consolidated into the 1st Airborne Command Control Squadron			[1]

1st Airborne Command Control Squadron

Date	Designation	Assignment	Station	Equipment	Notes
9 May 1969	1st Airborne Command Control Squadron	inactive			[1]
1 July 1969		1st Composite Wing	Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland	EC-135J	[1]
December 1974				E-4A, EC-135J	[1][7]
1 November 1975		55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing			[1]
1976				E-4A	[1]
1 July 1977			Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska		[1]
December 1979				E-4A/B	[7]
January 1985				E-4B	[7]
1 September 1991	55th Operations Group				[1]
1 October 2016	595th Command and Control Group				[1]

References

Notes

Explanatory notes

1. Approved 8 August 1969.
2. Although the 1st Squadron was a new organization, it was also entitled to retain the honors (but not the history or lineage) of the 1000th. This includes an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award earned for the period 1 January 1967 – 31 December 1968. AF Pamphlet 900-2, p. 484
3. Offutt Air Force Base occupies much of the same ground as Fort Omaha did in 1917, when the 2d Balloon Squadron was organized there.

Citations

1. Musser, James M. (20 June 2019). "1 Airborne Command Control Squadron (ACC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
2. Goss, p. 75
3. Mueller, p. 12
4. "Abstract, History 1001 Air Base Wing Jan–Jun 1962". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
5. "Abstract, History 1001 Air Base Wing Jan–Jun 1965". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
6. Hammes, SRA Rachel (4 October 2016). "595th Command and Control Group activates at Offutt" (Press release). Air Force History Index. Retrieved 12 October 2016.
7. den Daas, Gostar (January 2014). "Boeing E-4: The Doomsday plane". Avia Magazine. Retrieved 4 May 2023. the first complete A model was handed over to Andrews AFB, December 1974

Bibliography

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Goss, William A. (1955). "The Organization and its Responsibilities, Chapter 2 The AAF". In Craven, Wesley F.; Cate, James L. (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II (PDF). Vol. VI, Men & Planes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. LCCN 48003657. OCLC 704158. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-02-1. LCCN 61060979. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Mueller, Robert (1989). Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 (PDF). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-53-6. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947-1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
• "AF Pamphlet 900-2, Unit Decorations, Awards and Campaign Participation Credits" (PDF). Washington, DC: Department of the Air Force Index. 15 June 1971. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2016.