35th Flying Training Squadron emblem (approved 20 February 1973)[1][note 1][2]
35th Troop Carrier Squadron emblem (approved 15 July 1954)[3][note 2]
Military unit
The 35th Flying Training Squadron was a United States Air Force unit, last assigned to the 64th Operations Group at Reese Air Force Base, Texas. The squadron was inactivated in 1996 as the 64th Flying Training Wing began drawing down in preparation for the closing of Reese the following year. The squadron had performed Undergraduate pilot training at Reese since 1972.
The squadron was first activated in February 1942 as the 35th Transport Squadron at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania and equipped with military models of the Douglas DC-3, primarily the C-47 Skytrain, for training. In June, the squadron moved to Westover Field, Massachusetts, where it was assigned to the 64th Transport Group and prepared for overseas movement, which occurred the following month, after it was redesignated the 35th Troop Carrier Squadron.[2]
Upon its arrival overseas, the squadron trained with paratrooper and glider units in airborne operations for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. On 10 November the air echelon flew from England via Gibraltar and on the following day landed personnel of the British 3rd Parachute Battalion at Maison Blanche (now Dar El Beïda), near Algiers. By mid-December, the squadron's ground echelon joined the air echelon at Blida Airfield, Algeria.[4]
The group dropped paratroops to capture airfields and destroy bridges, during the battle for Tunisia; Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943; and Operation Avalanche, the invasion of Italy in September 1943.[4]
In April 1944, most of the squadron was detached to India where it aided in the Allied offensive in Burma, where it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation. The squadron returned to Sicily in mid-Jun 1944. It moved to Italy the following month and participated in Operation Dragoon , the assault on southern France in August 1944, releasing gliders and paratroops. It moved to Waller Field, Trinidad without aircraft, in June 1945 and inactivated there in July 1945.[4][2]
Cold War and War in Vietnam
Paratroopers jump from a C-82C-119 Flying BoxcarC-130 Hercules in South Vietnam
The squadron transported cargo and personnel in the Far East and Southeast Asia, 1963–1971[2]
Pilot training
The squadron was redesignated the 35th Flying Training Squadron and activated at Reese Air Force Base, Texas in 1972. It conducted undergraduate pilot training at Reese until it was inactivated in 1996.[2]
Lineage
Constituted as the 35th Transport Squadron on 2 February 1942
Activated on 14 February 1942
Redesignated 35th Troop Carrier Squadron on 4 July 1942
Inactivated on 31 July 1945
Redesignated 35th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium on 3 July 1952
Activated on 14 July 1952
Inactivated on 21 July 1954
Activated on 20 December 1962 (not organized)
Organized on 8 January 1963
Redesignated 35th Troop Carrier Squadron on 8 December 1965
Redesignated 35th Tactical Airlift Squadron on 1 August 1967
Inactivated on 31 March 1971
Redesignated 35th Flying Training Squadron on 14 April 1972
^Description: Azure, two ribbons barbed, each arcing from base doubled in chief braced and arcing back to base Or, between five mullets one, two, Or, and two Argent
^Description: On a disc light sky blue, border green, over the disc a lightning bolt re, point downward, between two sylized clouds white in base; the bold surmounted by a caricatured US mule, dark gray, riding a paradrop platform and pulling forward a drag chute, shades of white; the mule, platform and parachute outlined dark gray.