The 830th was occasionally diverted from the strategic campaign to carry out some support and interdiction operations. It struck bridges, harbors, and troop concentrations in August 1944 to aid with Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France. It also hit communications lines and other targets during March and April 1945 to support the advance of the British Eighth Army in northern Italy in Operation Grapeshot.[3]
When Strategic Air Command (SAC) was formed in March 1946, the squadron became one of its first operational squadrons. In May 1946, the 830th became part of the 509th Composite Group and moved to Walker Army Air Field the following month.[1][3] The 509th Group, soon redesignated the 509th Bombardment Group, "provided the nucleus for [SAC]'s atomic striking force".[4] Group crews and aircraft participated in Operation Crossroads, atomic testing in the Marshall Islands during 1946. With the advent of the Convair B-36 Peacemaker, the B-29 was no longer considered a very heavy bomber, and the squadron was redesignated as a medium unit in July 1948.[1][4]
The squadron began upgrading to the Boeing B-50 Superfortress, an advanced version of the B-29 in 1949.[1] The B-50 gave the unit the capability to carry heavy loads of conventional weapons faster and farther as well as being designed for atomic bomb missions if necessary. SAC’s mobilization for the Korean War highlighted that SAC wing commanders focused too much on running the base organization and did not spend enough time on overseeing actual combat preparations. To allow wing commanders the ability to focus on combat operations, the air base group commander became responsible for managing the base housekeeping functions.[5] In February 1951, the 509th Group became nonoperational and the squadron was attached directly to the 509th Bombardment Wing, and was assigned directly to the wing in June 1952.[1][6]
The squadron deployed as an element of the wing to SAC airfields in England three times, and once to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam on long-term deployments in the 1950s.[6] The squadron moved into the jet age when it received new, swept wing Boeing B-47 Stratojets in 1955. Three years later, the squadron moved to a new base at Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, where it continued to operate the Stratojet. The squadron became non-operational in November 1965, as the 509th Wing prepared for inactivation. This plan was changed and the wing converted to the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress instead. However, under SAC's dispersal plan, B-52 wings had only a single bombardment squadron,[7] and the 830th was inactivated on 25 June 1966.[1]
Lineage
Constituted as the 830th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 14 September 1943
Activated on 20 September 1943
Redesignated 830th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy c. 1944
Redesignated 830th Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 5 August 1945
Redesignated 830th Bombardment Squadron, Medium on 2 July 1948[8]
509th Composite Group (later 509th Bombardment Group), 6 May 1946 (attached to 509th Bombardment Wing, 17 November 1947 – 1 August 1948, 1 August 1948 – 14 September 1948[b] and after 1 February 1951)
509th Bombardment Wing, 16 June 1952 – 25 June 1966[8][6]
Stations
Fairmont Army Air Field, Nebraska, 20 September 1943 – 11 March 1944
Venosa Airfield, Italy, c. 30 April 1944 – c. 9 May 1945
Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa, 24 July 1945
Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas, 8 September 1945
Roswell Army Air Field (Later Walker Air Force Base), New Mexico, 23 June 1946
Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, 1 July 1958 – 25 June 1966[8][10]
^Approved 20 September 1955. Description: A light blue triangle, edged on two sides with eight stylized red lightning flashes, four and four, all outlined Air Force blue; an earth section issuing from base of the triangle and rising therefrom a mushroom cloud all white, outline and detail Air Force blue, over the center of the cloud a white silhouetted eagle volant, outline and detail of the second color.
^The 509th Bombardment Wing, a table of distribution unit was organized under the experimental wing base reorganization of the Army Air Forces. When the reorganization was made permanent, it was replaced by a new 509th Bombardment Wing, a table of organization unit, on 1 August 1948. The two were later consolidated. Ravenstein, p. 276.
Schneider, Sam, ed. (1995). This is How it Was: The History of the 485th Bomb Group (Heavy). St. Petersburg, FL: Southern Heritage Press. ISBN978-0941072151.
United States
United States Air Force
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