An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

22 EARS history shows significance of 16k sorties

  • Published
  • By Mr. John DeShetler
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Historian
TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan --  The early lineage of the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron reveals an interesting and varied series of roles beginning on Oct. 20, 1939, when it activated under the 7th Bombardment Group at Hamilton Field, Calif. It operated mostly as an anti-submarine patrol and training unit for bomber pilots, flying B-18 and A-17 aircraft. This effort continued until January 1942 when the unit moved across the Pacific to fly combat missions in support of the U.S. Navy from the Fiji Islands and Australia. It is during this time the 22nd earned its first of two Distinguished Unit Citation awards.

By the end of December 1942, the unit moved deeper into the Chinese, Burma, and India theaters to fly B-25 Mitchell bombers for the 10th Air Force in India. In 1944, the squadron moved to Yangkai, China, to become a part of the 14th Air Force, the Flying Tigers, under the command of General Claire Chennault. The squadron continued operations from Yangkai through the remainder of the war. One of the more notable missions of the squadron took place on October 25, 1942 when the 22nd's B-25 Mitchells participated in a daring daylight raid on Hong Kong harbor, a strategic follow-up to Jimmy Doolittle's famous raid on Japan just five months earlier.

Late in 1942 the 22nd Bombardment Squadron (M) came together as part of the 341st Bombardment Group (M) at Chakulia, India, about 100 miles west of Calcutta. The squadron continued to harass Japanese lines of supply and airfields in Burma, helping to keep open the only remaining Allied supply line from India, over the Himalaya Mountains to China, famously named "The Hump," until the end of the war. These eminent sorties paved the way to a second DUC. In addition, the squadron conducted aerial attacks on enemy supply lines in French Indochina (now Vietnam) and throughout southeast China and the South China Sea.

After a storied WWII career, the squadron stood down in 1945 only to be activated again five years later. By 1952, the squadron flew KC-97 tankers as it started upon its journey as a refueling unit that continues today. Notable accomplishments after 1952 included the loaning of personnel and KC-135 aircraft to support the war in Vietnam and flying refueling missions to support the invasion of Grenada from October to November 1983 that subsequently earned the squadron an Armed Forces Expeditionary streamer.

Although the 22nd inactivated in 1989 until after Desert Storm, it stood up again at Mountain Home Air Force Base as part of the first test of the Composite Wing as a complete air expeditionary force. Shortly after, it participated in Operation Provide Comfort and deployed aircraft and personnel to Bahrain in 1997.

In 2001, the Global War on Terror afforded a more robust mission and a series of assignments leading up its present status of an Air Combat Command unit and the formal designation of the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron in 2003. Up until this point, the impressive collection of accolades not only includes the two prestigious DUCs, but no less than nine campaign streamers, and 14 Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards. Since its reactivation and involvement in Operation Enduring Freedom, the latest chapter of the 22nd EARS remains to be written, but given its completion of 16,000 sorties in supporting the current mission, its history books surely have many pages remaining.