The mission of the unit is to conduct training for the nation's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) operations and ICBM and air launched cruise missile (ALCM) maintenance forces. It trains electronic, electro- and missile-mechanical, facility, and spacelift maintenance technicians.[citation needed]
The squadron was occasionally taken off strategic operations to perform air support and interdiction missions. It bombed bridges and airfields near the beachhead to support Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy, in June 1944. The following month, it attacked positions of enemy forces opposing Operation Cobra, the breakout at Saint Lo. It supported Operation Market Garden, the airborne attacks in the Netherlands near Arnhem, in the fall. From December 1944, through January 1945, it attacked lines of communications and airfields near the battle zone during the Battle of the Bulge. It also supported the Allied crossing of the Rhine and push through central Germany in March 1945.[5]
Return to the United States and inactivation
The squadron flew its last mission on 26 April 1945 and the majority of the unit's aircraft departed the theater on 24 May 1945. Ground personnel sailed on the RMS Queen Elizabeth on 24 June, arriving in the US by the end of the month. The squadron was located at Sioux Falls Army Air Field, South Dakota a few days later and was inactivated on 24 August 1945.[6][5]
Air Force reserve
The squadron was activated in the reserve at Offutt Field, Nebraska, where its training was supervised by the 4131st AAF Base Unit (later the 2473d Air Force Reserve Training Center) of Air Defense Command (ADC). It was originally assigned directly to Second Air Force, but the following year again became part of the 381st Group. Although designated a very heavy bombardment group, it does not appear to have been fully manned and was equipped with North American AT-6 Texan and Beechcraft AT-11 training aircraft.[1] In 1948 Continental Air Command assumed responsibility for managing reserve and Air National Guard units from ADC.[10] President Truman's reduced 1949 defense budget also required reductions in the number of units in the Air Force,[11] and the 532d was inactivated In June 1949.[1]
Strategic missile operation
Titan II missile in its silo
The unit was redesignated the 532d Strategic Missile Squadron and organized at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas on 1 March 1962 as a part of the 381st Strategic Missile Wing. The squadron began training in preparation for LGM-25C Titan II, and the 381st Wing put its first Titans on alert in July 1963.[1][12] It operated nine Titan II underground silos constructed beginning in 1960; the first site going operationally ready in October 1963 The nine missiles remained on alert for over 20 years during the Cold War.[citation needed]
In October 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced that as part of the strategic modernization program, Titan II systems were to be retired by 1 October 1987.[citation needed] Inactivation of the sites began in September 1984,[citation needed] In November 1985, the 533d Strategic Missile Squadron was inactivated and its remaining active missiles were transferred to the 532d.[13] The squadron became nonoperational in May 1986, and the squadron was inactivated on 8 August 1986.[1]
After removal from service, the silos had reusable equipment removed by Air Force personnel, and contractors retrieved salvageable metals before destroying the silos with explosives and filling them in. Access to the vacated control centers was blocked off. Missile sites were later sold off to private ownership after demilitarization. Today the remains of the sites are still visible in aerial imagery, in various states of use or abandonment.[citation needed]
Missile training
The squadron was redesignated the 532d Training Squadron and activated at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on 1 October 1994, when Air Education and Training Command expanded its space and missile training organizations from a single squadron to a group.[1][13] The 532nd serves Air Force Global Strike Command by providing initial and advanced maintenance training in LGM-30G Minuteman III, and AGM-86 ALCM air-launched cruise missile systems.[citation needed] Following the creation of the United States Space Force, the 381st Training Group was inactivated and the 532d Training Squadron was reorganized as a geographically separated unit under the 82d Training Group, Sheppard AFB, Texas.
Lineage
Constituted as the 532d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 28 October 1942
Activated on 3 November 1942
Redesignated 532d Bombardment Squadron, Heavy on 20 August 1943
Inactivated on 28 August 1945
Activated in the reserve on 20 December 1946
Redesignated 532d Bombardment Squadron, Very Heavy on 27 December 1946
Inactivated on 27 June 1949
Redesignated 532d Strategic Missile Squadron (ICBM-Titan) and activated on 26 February 1962
Organized on 1 March 1962
Inactivated on 8 August 1986
Redesignated 532d Training Squadron on 4 August 1994
^Approved 4 October 1943. Description: On a scarlet disc, a white flying Trojan horse, outlined in black, winged with Fortress wings ultramarine blue, edged white, having a golden lance spike on the knees of each foreleg. eyes red, and breathing jagged golden orange lightning flash from each nostril.
^Aircraft in the foreground is Boeing B-17G-70-BO Flying Fortress, serial 43-37675, VE-N, Patches/Flak Magnet (after October 1944, Trudie's Terror). It survived the war and was transferred to Kingman, Arizona on 17 December 1945. It was sold for scrap in July 1946. Baugher, Joe (10 April 2023). "1943 USAF Serial Numbers". Joe Baugher. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
^Eight of the 17 bombers dispatched by the 381st Group were shot down on this mission. Freeman, p. 75.
Freeman, Roger A. (1970). The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (A History of the US 8th Army Air Force). London, England, UK: Macdonald and Company. ISBN978-0-87938-638-2.
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