| 569th Strategic Missile Squadron | |
|---|---|
Emblem of the 569th Strategic Missile Squadron |
|
| Active | 1942-1945; 1962-1965 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Type | Strategic Missile |
The 569th Strategic Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was to the 9th Strategic Aerospace Wing, stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.
It was inactivated on 1 April 1965.
Contents |
Activated in early 1943 as a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber squadron, it trained under the Second Air Force. It deployed to England in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during July 1943 where it was assigned to VIII Bomber Command as a strategic bombardment squadron. It participated in the air offensive over Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe until the German capitulation in May 1945. Squadron personnel were demobilized in England and returned to the United States; the squadron was reassigned to the Second Air Force and was planned to be re-equipped with B-29 Superfortresses for deployment to the Pacific Theater. The Japanese capitulation led to the units' inactivation in August 1945, being neither manned or equipped.
It was re-activated in the postwar Air Force Reserve as a B-29 squadron in 1947 and inactivated due to budget reductions in 1949.
It was re-activated once more in 1961 as a HGM-25A Titan I ICBM launch squadron, the last such activation of a Titan I squadron within the Strategic Air Command. The squadron was deployed in a 3x3 configuration, which meant a total of nine missiles were divided into three bases. Each base had three ICBMs ready to launch at any given time.
On 19 November 1964, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced the phasing-out of the remaining first-generation SM-65 Atlas and Titan I missiles by the end of June 1965. Consequently, the Titan Is of the 569th SMS were removed from alert status on 17 February 1965. The last missile was shipped out on 1 April. The US Air Force subsequently deactivated the squadron.
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.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||