The squadron was first activated as the 619th Bombardment Squadron in 1943. It was one of the four squadrons of the 477th Bombardment Group, the first (and only) bombardment group in the United States Army Air Forces to include black pilots. Members of the squadron participated in the Freeman Field Mutiny, protesting racial segregation in the military. The squadron was inactivated in 1945 when the 477th became a composite group that included one bombardment and one fighter squadron.
The 919th Air Refueling Squadron was activated as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) tanker squadron in 1960 and moved to Turner Air Force Base, Georgia as part of SAC's program to disperse its Boeing B-52 Stratofortress as a defense against a first strike by the Soviet Union. The squadron served in this capacity for eleven years during which it deployed aircraft and aircrews to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.
The two squadrons were consolidated into a single unit in 1985, but the consolidated squadron has never been active.
History
World War II
Officers of the 477th Bombardment Group at Freeman Field, Indiana, about to board air transports to take them to Godman Field, Kentucky.[b]
The 477th group was reactivated in January 1944 at Selfridge Field, Michigan as the "first colored bombardment group in the Army Air Forces" with personnel drawn from Selfridge and from Tuskegee Army Air Field, Alabama.[3] It was the second combat group to be activated with African American personnel and would be the only African-American bombardment group.[4] The group moved to Godman Field, Kentucky, where the 619th was activated in May.[1] The unit encountered problems attributed to the lack of experienced personnel, which required even basic training in military occupational specialties to be conducted within the unit, rather than at technical training schools.[5]
Although designated a "colored" squadron, some officers, including the squadron leadership were white. The initial commander of the 477th Group enforced racial segregation on the posts where the squadron was stationed. The squadron's members were involved in the civil rights action referred to as the Freeman Field Mutiny; the "mutiny" came about when African-American aviators became outraged enough by racial segregation in the military that they resorted to mass insistence that military regulations prohibiting discrimination be enforced. The Freeman Field Mutiny was a crucial event in the African-American struggle for equal civil rights.[6]
The squadron deployed aircraft and aircrew to the Western Pacific, 1966–1967 to support SAC operations along with tactical aircraft flying combat missions over Indochina during the Vietnam War (Operation Young Tiger).[11] During September 1966, the squadron was non-operational when all its crews and aircraft were deployed to support Operation Arc Light.[12] When Turner AFB was transferred to the United States Navy in 1967[13] for re-designation as Naval Air Station Albany (Turner Field), the squadron moved to McCoy Air Force Base, Florida. In 1969 the squadron won the Saunders Trophy as the best air refueling squadron during SAC's annual Bombing and Navigation Competition.[14] The following year the squadron converted from KC-135A aircraft to KC-135Qs.[15] The squadron remained at McCoy until it was inactivated in 1971 and its equipment and personnel transferred to the 306th Air Refueling Squadron.
The 919th Air Refueling Squadron was consolidated with the 619th Bombardment Squadron in 1985 but the consolidated squadron has not been active.[16]
Lineage
619th Bombardment Squadron
Constituted as the 619th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) on 13 May 1943
^Approved 18 August 1944. Description: On a light turquoise figure in the shape of an aircraft cannon shell, bordered dark blue, a large yellow orange aerial bomb palewise surmounted by a jagged red lightning bolt striking from a white cloud formation, edged black, in chief.
^The officers were under arrest for refusing to sign a document acknowledging that they had read a regulation denying them access to an all-white officers' club.
^ abcDepartment of the Air Force/MPM Letter 662q, 19 September 85, Subject: Reconstitution, Redesignation, and Consolidation of Selected Air Force Tactical Squadrons
^ abcdLineage, including aircraft, stations and assignments from 1943 to 1945 in Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 688
Osur, Alan M. (2005). Blacks in the Army Air Forces During World War II: The Problems of Race Relations. Honolulu, HI: University Press of the Pacific. ISBN978-1-41022-448-4.
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United States
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