The following is the history of the 3rd BW during the Cold War from the 3rd Wing History :

3rd Wing Cold War Duties

With the war over in Korea, the 3rd Bombardment Wing returned to the routine of peacetime duty in the Cold War environment. It remained at Kunsan Air Base until 1 October 1954, when it moved back to Johnson Air Base. Beginning in January 1956, the 3rd Bombardment Group converted from the B-26 to the Martin B-57B Night Intruder. Powered by two 7,200 pound thrust engines, the medium jet bomber could carry 7,200 pounds of bombs.

The 3rd Bombardment Group was reduced to one officer and an enlisted man on 13 August 1956, essentially becoming a paper organization. The wing headquarters assumed direct control over the 8th, 13th, and 90th Bombardment Squadrons. Finally, the Air Force inactivated the 3rd Bombardment Group on 25 October 1957, as part of a reorganization plan that created wing deputy commanders for various functional areas and gave wing commanders more direct control over their units. While the group ceased to exist after 36 years of service, its proud heritage, in the form of its emblem and battle honors remained with the 3rd Bombardment Wing.

On 18 November 1960, the 3rd Bombardment Wing moved to Yokota Air Base where it continued to train in bombardment, reconnaissance and aerial refueling operations. The wing also stood nuclear alert with its B-57s. For a period, from 1 September 1963 until 8 January 1964, the wing’s headquarters remained in a non-operational status pending Air Force plans to convert it to a tactical fighter wing.

The Air Force, on 8 January 1964, redesignated the wing as the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, and moved it, without personnel and equipment, to England AFB, Louisiana. It was part of an overall effort to reduce the number of wings in Japan. At the same time, the wing gave up its B-57s, becoming the last bombardment wing to fly the medium bomber. The move also ended the long association with the 8th and 13th Bombardment Squadrons and nearly 22 years of active duty in the Far East. The 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing kept the 90th Bombardment Squadron, now redesignated as a tactical fighter squadron, and gained the 416th, 510th and 531st Tactical Fighter Squadrons. While at England AFB, the wing was brought up to full strength and equipped with the North American F-100 Super Saber.

Atomic Bomb Explosion
(U.S. Army Photo)

Reason Nuclear Alert in Korea: The reason the unit stood nuclear alert in Korea all those years -- instead of in Japan -- was that there was the Japanese "peace" constitution to contend with -- as well as a vocal protest movement against nuclear weapons on Japanese soil. According to the NRDC Bulletin , "The United States removed non-nuclear bomb components from Japan in mid-1965, more than a decade after their initial deployment. The precise circumstances of the withdrawal remain classified. During the late 1950s, the Pentagon had hoped to cure the Japanese of their "nuclear allergy" so that they would accept ongoing nuclear weapons storage on their territory. But by 1965, Pentagon officials apparently decided that the allergy was too difficult to cure. In any event, U.S. bombers and warships continued to use bases and port facilities in Japan for routine transit of nuclear weapons, which was permitted in a secret codicil of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty."

On the other hand, the Korean government never raised any arguments against nuclear weapons being stationed on their soil. The reason was that Korean President Syngman Rhee was entirely dependent upon U.S. aid to keep his government afloat. To illustrate how high-handed the U.S. operated in Korea during that time take the fact that the U.S. operated with no SOFA agreement in Korea until 1963. It was a perfect match...the Korean government -- as corrupt as it was -- had its palms greased with American aid. It accepted without protest anything the American military did as its very existence depended upon the good graces of the U.S. The Korean people were too busy scratching out an existence in their devastated country to bother with higher issues like nuclear weapons being on their land. The Koreans did not have an "allergy" to nuclear weapons as the Japanese did ... and may have secretly applauded the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima for their deep-seated hatred of the Japanese colonial days.

The U.S. simply unilaterally ignored Section 13d of the Armistice agreement and introduced the nuclear weapons on Korean soil. After Syngman Rhee was deposed in 1963, the policy of nuclear weapons being on Korean soil continued without protest as the economy was still almost entirely U.S. funded. The defense strategy for called for the early use of nuclear weapons in case of a North Korean breakout -- either from missile or artillery -- and the twelve ROKA and two U.S. divisions in South Korea keyed their defense plans around this. A recently U.S. Government declassified document showed that in 1952, it was realized that the forward positioning of COMPLETE nuclear weapons were essential as "delays bringing the weapons to bear on a target were considered unacceptable in a fluid situation." The document also stated that they realized that there were "political and psychological considerations offered deterence to foreign concurrence." In other words, nobody really wanted the weapons to be stationed on their soil. Psychologically, the Japanese had a distinct "allergy" to the weapons on their soil. (NOTE: Curiously, this same document has a chronology of deployments broken down by country -- in alphabetical order. "South Korea" is not listed...though there are blacked out entries that could possibly be the country.)

Atomic Demolition Munition
20 kilo-ton destruction in a small package
(From "Where Were They" by Norris)

In Korea's Place in the Sun, A Modern History by Bruce Cummins, 1997, (pp478-479) it states, "On January 14, 1957, the NSC Planning Board, at the instruction of President Eisenhower, "prepared an evaluation of four alternative military programs of Korea." A key question was "the kinds of nuclear-capable weapons to be introduced, and the question of storage of nuclear warheads in Korea." In the ensuing six months of discussions, Secretary of State Dulles agreed with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that such weapons should be sent to Korea. There were two problems, however: the armistice agreement and Syngman Rhee. A subparagraph in the agreement (section 13d) barred both sides from introducing new types of weapons into the Korean theater. Radford simply wanted unilaterally to suspend section 13d, since in his view it could not be "interpreted" to allow nuclear weapons. Dulles, ever the legalist, conditioned his support of the JCS proposal on the provision of "publishable evidence confirming Communist violations of the armistice sufficient to justify such action to our allies and before the UN." The problem was that the "publishable evidence" was not satisfactory, because the communist side had not seriously violated section 13d. It had introduced new jet aircraft, but so had the United States, and neither innovation was considered a radical upgrading of capabilities. Nuclear weapons were quite a different matter. This bothered the British, but the United States went ahead in spite of their worries and in June 1957 relieved itself of its section 13d obligations."

It continues (p479), "In January 1958 the United States positioned 280-mm nuclear cannons and Honest John nuclear-tipped missiles in South Korea, and a year later the air force "permanently stationed a squadron of nuclear-tipped Matador cruise missiles in Korea." From Peter Hayes Pacific Powderkeg: American Nuclear Dilemmas in Korea , 1991, (p35) it states, "With a range of 1,100 kilometers, the Matadors were aimed at China and USSR as well as North Korea." By the mid-1960s Korean defense strategy was pinned on routine plans to use nuclear weapons very early in any new war. According to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation , in December 1960, "the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff complete SIOP 62. This war plan called for the launch of more than 3,000 nuclear weapons--including hundreds of hydrogen bombs--to attack in the first few hours of conflict 1,000 separate targets in the Communist bloc."

As a 1967 Pentagon war game script put it, "The twelve ROKA and two U.S. divisions in South Korea had ... keyed their defense plans almost entirely to the early use of nuclear weapons."

Martin B-57 Canberra: According to FAS site , "The origins of the B-57 Canberra can be traced indirectly to the latter part of World War II when the Luftwaffe began combat operations with two jet propelled aircraft. The Messerschmidt and the Arado. Although the introduction of these two aircraft was too late to affect the outcome of the war, it sent a shock throughout the allied air forces. In 1951, the United States broke a long-standing tradition by purchasing a foreign military aircraft to be manufactured in quantity for the U.S. Air Force. The B-57 is a modified version of the English Electric Canberra which was first flown in Great Britain on May 13, 1949, and later produced for the Royal Air Force."

It continued, "After the Korean Conflict began in 1950, the U. S. Air Force looked for a jet-powered medium bomber to replace the aging Douglas B-26 Invader. In March 1951, the USAF contracted with the Glenn Martin Company to build the Canberra in the United States under a licensing agreement with English Electric. The first Canberra in American colors flew in 1951 with the first American built Canberra or Intruder in 1953. The Martin-built B-57 made its first flight on July 20, 1953. When production was terminated in 1959, a total of 403 Canberras had been produced for the USAF. The B-57 served as a light bomber and as a reconnaissance aircraft. American built Canberras have also been exported to Turkey as well as other countries. One unique feature about the B-57 was its rotating bomb bay door. The bombs were loaded on the door assembly itself which would rotate completely inside the bomb bay prior to weapon release."

According to Martin B-57 Canberra/Night Intruder , "...the B-57B, which had as its most dominant feature a fully redesigned nose section that had all the traits of American design for that time. It was a tandem arrangement for the crew of two which raised the navigator out of the lower part of the fuselage so that he could see to navigate. Another unique feature of the Americanized bomber was its one-piece rotating bomb bay door. Attached by two pivot points fore and aft, it rotated 180 degrees to expose the bombs attached to it. This innovation eliminated the need to reduce the speed of the B-57 when opening the door, which is often the case when opening conventional clamshell doors. Also introduced were speed brakes to the sides of the fuselage for added control in descents." With the rotating bomb bay door, the bombs were loaded on the door assembly itself which would rotate completely inside the bomb bay prior to weapon release.

The following writeup of the B-57B is from Baugher site :

The design of the B-57B definitive production version of the US-built Canberra began in early 1952, when the Air Materiel Command and the Air Research and Development Command recognized the basic deficiencies in the B-57A configuration. In March, they presented a list of the problems and shortcomings that had been encountered with the Canberra to Air Force Headquarters. In April, the two Commands provided the Air Council with a list of minimum changes that would be needed to make the B-57A into a useful combat aircraft. The Air Force committed the new aircraft to production on August 11, 1952. The aircraft was assigned the designation B-57B.

Letter Contract AF 32(038)-22617 of March 1951 had originally called for the production of 250 B-57s, but it was amended several times. In the agreement of August 11, 102 B-57Bs were substituted for 70 B-57As and for 32 RB-57As. In Letter Contract AF 33(600)-22208, which was issued on September 19, 1952, 119 more B-57Bs were added. It was amended on December 18, bringing the Fiscal Year 1953 B-57B procurement to 191, bringing the planned total production of the B-57B to 293.

However, the production order was not to remain at that level. In early 1954, the USAF cut back the FY 1953 B-57B procurement to 158 (a 33-aircraft reduction) and dropped the tentative order for 50 more. In the spring, 38 additional B-57Bs were cut in favor of an equal number of B-57C dual-control trainers. A few months later, 20 additional B-57Bs were diverted to the B-57D program, bringing the total reduction to 91 aircraft. In the event, a total of 202 B-57Bs were built, more than all the other versions put together.

The most significant change introduced by the B-57B was the complete redesign of the cockpit area. The navigator/bombardier was moved from the "buried" position in the fuselage behind the pilot and moved upwards to a position behind the pilot, with both crew members seated in tandem underneath a large clamshell-opening bubble canopy. This arrangement improved visibility, provided more space for equipment, and made it easier for the navigator/bombardier to escape from the aircraft in the event of an emergency. The new arrangement also made for better communication between the two crew members. Although the pilot's seat was on the aircraft centerline, the navigator's seat was lightly offset to left of center to provide room for a Shoran receiver-indicator and the M-1 toss-bomb computer unit. The B-57B also introduced a flat-plate windshield which permitted the installation of a gunsight, which was impossible in the B-57A because of the distortion and flexing of the latter's curved one-piece canopy. The tandem cockpit seating arrangement was first tried out on Canberra WD940, but it is not certain if the aircraft was ever actually flown in this configuration. The first true B-57B flew on June 18, 1954. Four external pylons were fitted underneath each wing that could carry bombs or rockets. A 17-foot long, one-piece rotating bomb door was incorporated, which was a feature originally developed for the XB-51. The door rotated 180 degrees around two pivots, taking four seconds to open and six to close. The bombs were attached directly to the inward side of the door, so that when the door was rotated open the bombs were in an externally-mounted position. The attachment points on the door allowed a wide variety of stores to be carried, including nuclear weapons. The rotating door also made it possible to make bombing runs at higher speeds because the buffeting associated with conventional bomb doors when they were opened was eliminated. The development of this door was the main reason why the B-57 became the most accurate of the aircraft using the LABS. Another advantageous feature was that the entire door could easily be removed from the aircraft while it was on the ground, making it possible to pre-load the door with ordnance and quickly winch it into place inside the fuselage, enabling a rapid turnaround.

An APW-11 Bombing Air Radar Guidance System was provided, helping the pilot to make accurate runs into the target. The Shoran bombing system was added for use by the bombardier/navigator. An APS-54 Radar Warning System was provided, which increased the angle of coverage astern of the aircraft and gave the crew some warning of AI illumination.

There were important changes to the starter system, with the manually-operated cartridge of the RB-57A being replaced by one that was electrically-ignited. A pyrotechnic cartridge was loaded into a breech in the center of the engine air intake. When ignited, the cartridge drove a starter turbine which brought the engine up to a self-sustaining rpm via a clutch system. This eliminated the need for heavy and bulky ground starting units, but the starter cartridge spewed out a characteristic dense cloud of choking black smoke, which was often mistaken by inexperienced ground crews for an engine fire.

The new B-model had a set of speed brakes installed at the waist position of the fuselage. It was found that the finger-like spoilers on the top and bottom of the outer wing panels did not provide sufficient drag for speed control, and these were supplemented by the waist speed brakes. It would turn out that the speed brakes would be very useful in controlling acceleration during diving passes in the ground attack role.

Some other features incorporated on the B-57B worth mentioning are wing surface and engine inlet anti-icing, anti-skid wheel brakes, a drag chute for landing on short runways, and power boost controls.

A forward-firing armament was fitted to the B-57B. The B-57B initially mounted eight 0.50-inch machine guns, four in each wing in pairs outboard of the engine nacelles. Each wing carried 300 rounds of ammunition. After the 83rd B-57B (52-1575), the eight 0.50-inch forward-firing machine guns in the wings were replaced by four M-39 20-mm cannon, two in each wing. The cannon were fixed to fire downwards at 3.5 degrees from the flight path. Each gun had 290 rounds of ammunition. The mounting of cannon in place of machine guns involved airframe alteration and considerable wing modifications. Consequently, machine-gun equipped B-57Bs were not converted to the cannon weapons.

According to the original licensing agreement with English Electric, the name Canberra was also to be used to describe the Martin-built version of the British-designed twin-jet bomber, both by the Glenn L. Martin Company itself and also by the US Air Force. Although the official popular name of the B-57 was indeed listed as Canberra by the Air Force, this name was not used very often in practice, the aircraft being referred to simply as B-57.

The first few B-57Bs to be built had a natural metal finish, but the remainder were finished in gloss black overall, in fitting with their night intruder role.

The first true B-57B flew on June 18, 1954. The first organization to re-equip with the B-57 was the 345th Bomb Group (Tactical), based at Langley AFB in Virginia. The 345th was initially responsible for training its own crews. However, in the spring of 1955 a special B-57 operational conversion unit was formed -- the 3510th Combat Crew Training Wing (CCTW) at Randolph AFB in Texas. Shortly thereafter, a second B-57B unit, the 461st Bomb Group (Tactical) was formed at Hill AFB in Utah, receiving its first B-57Bs in January of 1955. In the summer of 1955, they moved to Blytheville AFB in Arkansas. The 461st BG was, in fact, the first of the Bomb Groups to be fully equipped with B-57s. B-57B units were also formed overseas. In 1956, the 38th Bomb Group (Tactical) was formed at Laon AB in France. The 3rd Bomb Group in the Far East at Johnson AB in Japan traded in its B-26s for B-57Bs in 1957.

From the beginning, emphasis was placed on rapid deployment of the B-57B overseas in the event of a crisis. Tactical cooperation procedures were worked out in late 1956 in Exercise Sagebrush, which involved joint operations by the 461st BG and the RB-57As of the 363rd TRW and was carried out across the southeastern portion of the USA. The 461st TBG and the 363rd TRW were the aggressors in the exercise. In 1957, 13 B-57s of the 461st BG embarked on a goodwill tour of Latin America, after which it deployed to Laon in France to fly alongside the 38th BG in Exercise Counter Punch, NATO's annual tactical air exercise.

Like the RB-57As, the B-57Bs suffered from engine malfunctions which filled up the cockpit with toxic fumes, which led to a brief grounding. The culprit turned out to be the engine compressor, which was quickly fixed and the grounding order was lifted. Difficulties with the aircraft's stabilizer control system led to another grounding order in February of 1955. The B-57Bs were released for flight a month later, but were restricted to a maximum speed of only 250 knots pending the modification of the horizontal stabilizer and the installation of a different stabilizer trim switch.

During this period a number of B-57Bs were lost in accidents, particularly during high-speed, low-level operations when aircraft suddenly and unexplainably dived into the ground. As these accidents persisted, all tactically-assigned B-57Bs were grounded again in May of 1956 for a period of four months while the problem was investigated. The fault was eventually traced to a faulty tailplane actuator which set the trim incorrectly. The installation of a new actuator switch cured the problem.

The USAF was not very happy with the B-57B as it was initially produced. It was still deemed to be inadequate to meet the night intruder and close support role for which it had originally been designed. The target acquisition system was inadequate, the navigational range was too short, and the radio navigation could not recover the aircraft after strikes. The armament was inadequate -- the gun-bomb-rocket sight, the gun charging systems, and the external stores release mechanisms were all unreliable. In September 1955, the Air Force organized a three-phase program to bring the B-57B up to tactical standards. Phase 1 installed the low altitude bombing system (LABS), the AN/APS-54 Search Radar, and the ALE-2 chaff dispenser. Phase 2 added the M-1 toss bomb computer and the AN/APG-31 tie-in equipment. This phase also involved modifications to the longitudinal control and stabilizer systems and to the fuel control panels and special weapon bomb bay doors. Phase III dealt with the AN/APN-59 radar beacon, which was destined never to be installed. These modifications were carried out by Martin subcontractors in the USA and overseas. These modifications were still in progress in late 1957. The service life of the B-57B with USAF tactical bomb groups was destined to be brief. After three years of service with the B-57s in tactical bomb groups, the decision was made to phase out the B-57 in favor of supersonic aircraft. By the end of 1957, the tactical squadrons of USAFE had began to re-equip with the F-100 Super Sabre, and early in 1958, the 38th BG returned to the USA to begin deactivation. In April of 1958 the 461st BG began to deactivate at Blytheville AFB. As the active duty USAF TAC bomb groups deactivated, their aircraft were transferred to the Air National Guard (ANG).

The 345th BG was about to deactivate at Langley AFB when one of its squadrons had to be hastily deployed in July of 1958 to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to make a show of force in response to a crisis in Lebanon. They stayed there three months. After the Lebanon crisis was defused, the B-57Bs were returned to Langley AFB.

The deactivation of the 345th BG was further delayed by a crisis in the Taiwan Straits. In August of 1958, Mainland Chinese forces began bombarding the Nationalist-held island of Quemoy. In late August, the 345th BG sent a detachment of B-57Bs to Okinawa to stay on alert just in case mainland forces tried to invade Taiwan. The 3rd BG stood by in Japan to strike strategic targets in China, North Korea and possibly even the Soviet Union should the crisis escalate out of control. Fortunately, the crisis soon cooled and hostilities were averted, and the 345th BG returned to the USA to begin deactivation. This was completed in June of 1959.

This left the 3rd Bombardment Group based in Japan as the sole active B-57 USAF unit. Since nuclear weapons could not be stationed in Japan, in August of 1958, the 3rd BG set up a rotation of crews to stand nuclear alert at Kunsan (K-8) air base in Korea. This rotation continued until April of 1964, when the 3rd BG returned to Yokota to begin the process of inactivation.

This would ordinarily have been the end of the service of the B-57B with the USAF, with the 3rd BG being inactivated and all its planes being transferred to the Air National Guard. However, the worsening situation in Indochina led to orders for the 8th and 13th Bomb Squadrons of the 3rd BG to deploy to Clark AFB in the Philippines for possible action in Vietnam. As it happened, this move did not take place until August 5, following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in which North Vietnamese gunboats clashed with US destroyers.

According to the initial plan, 20 B-57Bs of the 8th and 13th BS were to be deployed to the Bien Hoa air base near Saigon. This would mark the first deployment of jet combat aircraft to Vietnam. This was technically a violation of the Geneva Protocols which forbade the introduction of jet combat aircraft to Vietnam, but the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which had just been passed by Congress was taken as a pretext to remove all such restrictions.

The initial deployment to Vietnam got off on the wrong foot. The first two B-57Bs to land collided with each other on the ground and blocked the runway at Bien Hoa, forcing the rest of the flight to divert to Tan Son Nhut Airport on the other side of Saigon. One of the B-57Bs dived into the ground during approach at Tan Son Nhut and was destroyed, killing both crew members.

During the next few weeks, more B-57Bs were moved from Clark AFB to Bien Hoa to make good these losses and to reinforce the original deployment. Things got so crowded at Bien Hoa at that time that some of the B-57s had to be sent back to Clark AFB. Initially, the B-57Bs were not cleared for actual combat missions, the aircraft being restricted to unarmed reconnaissance missions that were mainly designed to boost the morale of the population.

However, actual combat was not to be delayed very long. On November 1, 1964, Viet Cong squads shelled the airfield at Bien Hoa with mortars, destroying five of the B-57s parked there and damaging 15 others. Further Viet Cong mortar attacks led General William Westmoreland on February 19, 1965 to release B-57Bs for combat operations. The first such mission took place on that same day, a strike against suspected Viet Cong guerrillas near Bien Gia, about 30 miles east of Saigon. This strike was, incidentally, the first time that live ordnance had been delivered against an enemy from a USAF jet bomber.

The B-57Bs hit North Vietnamese territory for the first time on March 2, some 25 miles north of the DMZ. This was the first of a series of interdiction strikes that came to be known as Rolling Thunder. The usual bomb load on these operations was nine 500-lb bombs carried in the main weapons bay and four 750-lb bombs on the underwing pylons.

In April of 1965, B-57B crews began night interdiction strikes against enemy supply lines along the Ho Chi Min Trail. Operations were carried out in cooperation with C-130 or C-123 flare-deploying aircraft that illuminated potential targets and with USMC EF-10B Skyknight electronics warfare aircraft that jammed radar-controlled AAA and detected enemy missile sites that were preparing to launch. Eventually these night interdiction missions extended into North Vietnam, the first such attack taking place on April 21, 1965. However, it was considered too dangerous to fly C-130 flare-deploying aircraft into North Vietnamese airspace, so each B-57B carried a set of MK-24 flares in addition to bombs.

On May 16, 1965, while waiting to takeoff on a mission, a B-57B exploded on the ground at Bien Hoa, setting off a whole chain of secondary explosions. The resulting conflagration destroyed ten B-57s, eleven VNAF A-1H Skyraiders, and a US Navy F-8 Crusader. The surviving B-57s were transferred to Tan Son Nhut and continued to fly sorties on a reduced scale until the losses could be made good. Some B-57Bs had to be transferred to Vietnam from the Air National Guard, and 12 B-57Es had to be withdrawn from target-towing duties and reconfigured as bombers to make good these losses.

In June of 1965, the 3rd Bomb Group moved to Da Nang to carry out night interdiction operations over North Vietnam and Laos. Principal targets were trucks, storage and bivouac areas, bridges, buildings and AAA sites. When deployed at Da Nang, the 8th and 13th Squadrons came under operational control of the 6252nd Tactical Fighter Wing which became the 35th TFW about a year later.

Combat attrition in the B-57 force plus the increasing availability of higher performance fighters to carry out the air war against the North caused the 3rd BG to be withdrawn from operations against the North in October of 1966 and relocated to Phan Rang, just south of Nha Trang and Cam Ranh Bay. It carried out attacks against Communist forces in the Central Highlands and supported US ground troops in the so-called "Iron Triangle". While there, the B-57s operated alongside the Canberra B. Mk. 20s of No. 2 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force.

In January of 1968, the 13th Bomb Squadron was deactivated, and the 8th BS was left in permanent residence at Phan Rang. The main emphasis was again on night interdictions against the Ho Chi Minh Trail. By July of 1969, the 8th BS's strength was down to only 9 aircraft, and it was decided that it was time to retire the B-57B from active service. The surviving aircraft were sent back to the USA in September and October and put into storage at Davis-Monthan AFB. The identity of the 8th BS was transferred to another unit at Bien Hoa to become the 8th Attack Squadron, which was equipped with Cessna A-37s.

Out of the 94 B-57s that were assigned to the Southeast Asia theatre, 51 were lost in combat (including 15 destroyed on the ground). 11 were withdrawn early to support the B-57G program.

---

Specification of Martin B-57B Canberra:

Powerplant:
Two Wright J65-W-5 turbojets, 7220 lb.s.t. each.

Performance:
Maximum speed 598 mph at 2500 feet, 575 mph at sea level. Cruising speed 476 mph. Stalling speed 124 mph. Combat ceiling 45,100 feet. Initial climb rate 6180 feet per minute. Combat radius 948 miles with 5240 pounds of bombs. 2722 miles ferry range.

Weights:
27,091 pounds empty, 53,721 pounds gross, 36,689 pounds combat weight.

Dimensions:
Wingspan 64 feet 0 inches, length 65 feet 6 inches, height 14 feet 10 inches, wing area 960 square feet.

Armament:
Four 20-mm M-39 cannon in the wings, 290 rounds per gun. 4500 pounds of bombs in internal bomb bay, 2800 pounds underwing.

8TBS Aircraft on practice bombing mission near Mt. Fuji
(Courtesy Jack Stoob )

Nuclear Mission: On the Aerospace Publishing Ltd site , it states, "Within the USAF, one bombardment unit that did prevail long after the others ceased to exist was the 3rd Bomb Wing in Japan. It continued with its important mission during those unsettled years by maintaining quick-strike capability against targets on the mainland of China, North Korea and the USSR. A squadron-strength detachment was always on 15-minute quick-strike alert at Kunsan, Korea as the primary mission of the 3rd Bomb Wing."

The Martin 272 site states, "The 3rd Bombardment Group, stationed in Japan and Korea, was given a nuclear-attack role. Equipped with Low Altitude Bombing System (LABS) computers, crews trained to toss their bombs in a 3.5g climb, then loop over and race away to escape the nuclear blast."

Jack Stoob , a bombadier/navigator with the 8th Bomb Squadron (Tactical) wrote on Mark Witt's B-57 Canberra site , "The typical missions of the 8 TBS and the other two squadrons of the 3rd Bomb Wing were threefold:

1. Practice Low Altitude Bombing (LABS) at the Mito range in Japan or at Kuni in Korea.
2. Short Range Navigation (SHORAN) bombing practice at the Mito range.
3. Conventional weapons (gunnery, rockets, dive bombing) at both ranges.
4. The squadrons of the the Third Bomb Wing were at Kunsan, Korea about one-third of the time." (NOTE: The monthly rotation to Kunsan was rotated between the three squadrons -- 8th, 13th and 90th TBS.)

Skip Bombing at Mito
(Photo from Mark Witt's B-57 Canberra site

Monthly Rotations to Kunsan: Robert W. Koeser of Wheaton, Illinois, at the time a Comm/Nav specialist, contributed his special insights of life on the K-8 "C-Pad" (Contingency Pad) and life in general at Kunsan in 1960-1964. He was assigned to the 3rd A&EMS and it was a hectic period for his work. He wrote, "Yokota had 4 squadrons of '57's, the only air refueling outfit in the Far East (KB-50's of the 421st), an F-86D (later F-102) fighter squadron and a recon outfit. So it was many a time we would arrive back in "Yukata Flats", Japan and off we would go to another island or country within a few days (being a com/nav weenie and being "essential" had its disadvantages...). Hell, I was in Nam in 62 and 63 when we only had a thousand or so GI's in-country total."

Pad-C patch (circa 1962)

He wrote about Kunsan, "After the B-57's arrived from Johnson AB and landed in Yokota we began the tasking for our month long TDY's to Kunsan. I was an Airman 2nd and later 1st 30150 (Aircraft Comm. Maint.) with the 3rd A&EMS (Armament & Electronics Maintenance Squadron). This was in the years 1960 thru 1964. I had been stationed with SAC (let us bow our heads) Stateside so this nuclear alert force business was nothing new to me. Or so I thought"

"Several of us were notified that we would be part of the "load teams" when we arrived in Korea and that, because we were electronics types we had the "intelligence" to handle the situation in addition to our com/nav duties. We went for some training on Yokota, but it was almost totally a security session with emphasis on the two man concept (NO one will ever be near a "special weapon" alone - EVER!!!) and other concerns."

Some times there were high-jinxs of the aircrews to break the monotony. Kiyomi Noriye , SMSgt USAF (ret) of Las Vegas, Nevada wrote, "With the B-57s, I was TDY When we finished our commitment there. On the last sortie there our detachment commander made a LABS run right over the control tower, opened his bomb bay doors and dumped a case load of toilet paper, It was beautiful."

He later wrote, "The info you asked about the 3rd's presence at Kunsan may be of no help to you but when I was with the 3rd O.M.S. and going to Kunsan. Our alert facilities were on C-Pad (I think I sent you a photo of an F-4 parked in front of a then fuel cell maintenance building) that was our alert building/maint, hanger for the B-57s." Kiyo is referring to a photo of his F-4D parked on the C-pad in 1971. The hangar he refers to is still in existence.

Kiyo continued, "I think in those days also, we were one of the few outfits that had tail letterings on the vertical stabilizers and identified the aircrafts as such ie: RD as red delta and so on as far as from a maintenance standpoint. originally the B-57s were painted all black but when I worked on them they were dull gray or natural aluminum with the air force markings with nose dome and vertical tips painted according to which outfit the aircraft belong to. 8th was yellow 13th red 90th blue and our B-57c models were painted with green nose and tail anything else I can be of help or I can remember to confuse the issue let me know. The B-57c? they were used for pilot orientation. training etc. I don't recall ever using them for alert though."

Life on C-pad: Bob continued, "Generally, we flew over on C-124's (The "loose formation of rivets"or "aluminum cloud") or the old C-130A which also carried resupplies for Kunsan along with us maintenance types. Once there we were issued special Pad badges and taken to the Pad which was to be our home for 30 days. "Home" consisted of quonset huts. One latrine quonset, one living quarters quonset, one lounge quonset and outside the fence a chowhall quonset. The latrine and living quarters were larger than normal since they consisted of two quonsets bolted together. The living quarters gave each guy about the equivalent of eight feet of length and about four to five feet of width. Some of that space was taken up by a GI bunk and a wall locker of sorts. Air conditioning was provided by opening the windows and doors and by a oil operated space heater, one to a hut."

"The pad itself was double fenced with an area wide enough for a sentry dog and his handler between the fences. There were earthen revetments covered with PSP (perforated steel planking) for the aircraft and a couple of sheds used during turn-arounds (aircraft coming in or leaving). There was a large yellow circle painted on the concrete within which was the B-57. Outside the yellow circle were yellow lines about four and a half to five feet apart. This was where you were allowed to walk. Step outside the lines or enter the circle and the cabin-fevered sky cops would lay waste to you. And they meant it! I saw crash trucks stopped at the gate while the guards checked ID's while we had pucker factors of 9+ waiting."

"The aircraft and the enlisted guys lived together. In fact, one parking spot had the tip tank of a '57 no less than six feet from the side of the quarters quonset. The officers, all flight crews, lived outside the pad around OP's. Everyday, once in the morning and once in the evening we all got together and performed a preflight and a postflight of the aircraft and the weapon. Even if the aircraft had not been run up that day we performed these inspections."

"A crew of enlisted and officer was assigned to a specific aircraft. They included the crew chief, his assistant, the "A" man for the weapon and the two man air crew. NO ONE got near the aircraft without the "A" man. We were on a schedule of six on and one off for the month. A crew all took the same day off. "Roving" crews were used to fill in for the crews that had days off. Being on a "roving" crew was a pain in the neck, because as you will see knowing which aircraft was yours when the klakson went off was pretty handy information. Especially at O Dark Thirty."

Jack Stoob , a bombadier/navigator with the 3rd Bomb Wing (Tactical) sent some pics of K-8 in 1959 that are terrific examples of what existed on the base at the time.

Bottom of the Mark O-Club

Bus in the O-Club Parking Lot

The Officer's Club was called the "Bottom of the Mark" and basically was the "cleaned up" version of the O-Club in the Korean War. The hand-painted sign in the front of the O-Club building marks the parking spot for the Base Commander. The 9-hole Golf Course is in the rear. The location was the O-Club until the 1990s when the kitchen burned and the facility was not rebuilt. In 2001, the building was renovated and reopened as the West Wind Golf Course. The main entrance is in the same location. Another picture is of the bus in the O-Club parking lot that transported the crews to the C-pad where the unit's B-57s were parked on nuclear alert. The individual in the photo with the crew bus is Jim Young, a nav/bomber in the 8th BS.

Billets for Transient Crews

Ambulance and Quonset Hut Structures

The picture is of the billets for the rotating crews. These were the Squadron Commander billets during the Korean War. The one pictured belonged to the 8th Bomb Squadron (L-NI) Commander and featured the "Wheel House" after-hours bar for the squadron. Another picture which we believe is of the clinic area with the ambulance out front. The Clinic at the time was simply a leftover of the quonset hut buildings from the Korean War. The picture taken by Jack primarily for the trailer shown in the center. The trailer with bench seats was hauled by a weapons carrier and used to transport the pilots and navigators to the aircraft.

6175th ABG HQ Building

The above picture is a classic example of the base in transition. The sign is incomplete...with only "617 th ABG" painted on the sign. According to John Moench's book, the exact date the numerical designator changed is unknown, but the sign indicates it must have been around 1959. The door to the left is the Private Entrance of the Base Commander. The entrance is behind the truck.

The following article is excerpted from 90th Fighter Squadron History -- After Korea . The acknowledgements are extended to former 90th pilots John Schaefer and Vaughan Wells.

After the Korean War

"The Bomb Squadron"

On January 9, 1956 the 90th having been renamed "90th Bombardment Squadron, Tactical", in 1955, started converting to the B-57B Canberra bomber. For the next year and a half, the squadron was a mix of the incoming B-57 and outgoing B-26's they used during the Korean War. They practiced rocket attacks, dive bombing, skip bombing, and strafing, and the over-the-shoulder Low Altitude Bombing System nuclear delivery maneuver at Mito range, northeast of Tokyo and at the Koon-ni range on the west coast of Korea.

1LT John Schaefer outside the Kunsan AB Alert Facility. Note the 90th BS patch on flight suit and red dice embroidered on hat.

They were also tasked with a nuclear alert commitment at Kunsan AB, Korea in case of nuclear war. The following is an excerpt from the autobiography of John Schaefer, Major USAF (Ret), former 90th BS B-57 Pilot.

Initially the entire squadron went to Korea for one month. It was winter; fierce cold and the facilities left a lot to be desired. The "alert building" had a freestanding, kerosene heater to keep it warm but no latrine, just an outhouse in the snow. It was no fun getting up in the middle of the night to use it. Eventually an indoor latrine and showers were installed in the alert building but it was bad for a while.

The routine was one day on alert, one day flying a practice mission to Koon-ni Bomb Range and one day off. When on alert we slept in the alert building, which really was a fair size building. We had a lounge room with reel-to-reel taping equipment, which was very popular. We spent many hours dubbing tapes for personal use and I still have them. We also had a target study room. It was a restricted area, for aircrews only, to study their targets of responsibility. Each crew had one target in China and one in Russia to study, such as routes in and out, target photographs, maps, weather for the day, escape procedures if we went down over land, etc. We spent some of each day on alert in target study.

We had a practice alert every day, sometime during daylight hours, but never knew what time it would be. Some of us were napping, fully dressed in flight clothing and usually with boots on. Others might be playing pool, ping-pong, in target study, etc. When the siren blew we actually did not know if it was a practice or the real thing. We all ran for the hallway to grab our Mae West life jackets and sidearms that were hanging on hooks near the door. The navigators ran into the target study room to get the mission folder we used for target study while the pilots ran outside and got onto a flat trailer with bench seats that were connected to the rear of a weapons carrier. All the while connecting the Mae West and sidearm. The navigators came out with the target folders and did the same thing. That was when the navigators said it was a practice or the real thing. Up to that point the pilot's did not know.


90th BS B-57's on the Alert Pad at Kunsan AB, Korea, 1964.

When everyone was aboard the trailer we were towed about 300 yards to the area the aircraft were parked. The ground crews by now had the canopies pumped open, the battery connected and the engine covers removed. The bomb door was open and the bottom half of the bomb was visible. The trailer was towed slowly down the center of the parked aircraft without stopping. We would jump off while it was in motion as it came abeam our aircraft and we would jump onto the ladder and climb into the seat.

The airplane was already "cocked," meaning the battery switch was "ON" and the throttles in the start position. Prior to the alert, the battery was disconnected but the ground crew connected it when the alert siren sounded. Because the battery switch was on and ready for engine start, as I was getting into the seat I would reach down and hit both engine start switches, which fired the starter cartridges. Then I would settle into the seat, monitoring the engine instruments during the start while the crew chief helped me into the parachute harness. As soon as the engines reached idle speed and hydraulic pressure built up, the bomb door would close. I'd give the signal to pull the chocks and start taxiing to the active runway.

The alert parking area was at mid-field so either way we had about one mile to taxi, which we did at faster than normal taxi speed. As we got to the end of the taxiway we'd pull the inboard engine throttle back to idle (depending on which end of the runway we went to) and make a quick 180-degree turn onto the active runway. Without stopping, both throttles were advanced to full throttle and we started a take-off roll. At 60 knots airspeed we'd throttle back to idle, apply brakes and turn off the runway; returning to the alert pad. Then we parked, "cocked" the aircraft for another alert and returned to the alert building. We were able to get the time down from when the alert siren blew to the last aircraft rolling down the runway, to five minutes.

My thanks to former 90th pilots John Schaefer and Vaughan Wells for their help with this page.

In addition to the B-57s, the F-100Ds of the 39th Air Division shared the space. Lester G. Frazier , an F-100 pilot with the 531st TFS made a comment about the B-57s that were enlightening in that he considered the B-57s carried "primitive" weapons. At that time, the Air Force had already decided to phase out the B-57s and replace them with the F-100Ds. He wrote, "We shared out Alert Pad with B-57's out of Yakota AB, Japan. The B-57's carried the rather primitive MK-7 Atomic weapon in their bomb bay. The B-57 also had four 20-millimeter cannons imbedded in the wings and one day, while working in the cockpit of a B-57, a crew chief pulled the gun trigger. Since the airplane was on jacks, the squat switches, designed to prevent the guns from firing when the weight of the airplane is on the landing gear, did not work and the guns fired. When a B-57 is on jacks, it is distinctly nose low, so the 20 mm rounds impacted the concrete in front of the airplane, some ricocheting into the headlight of a pickup, while a mechanic lounged against the other headlight, and other rounds smashing into the wing of an uploaded B-57 and setting the wing on fire. A navigator, passing by and using his head, grabbed a fire extinguisher and pulled it over to the wing only to find the extinguisher empty when he depressed the spray bar. Other personnel starting to react found serviceable fire extinguishers and were able to put out the fire. I heard the guns fire, but with a building between the B-57 and me, I did not witness the event and had no idea what was going on. However, outside the containment fence, I could see Korean workers running as fast as possible in no particular direction. There was little likelihood of a nuclear explosion, but if the fire had engulfed the weapon, there probably would have been a conventional explosion with release of radiation. A conventional explosion could have easily set up the entire Alert Pad for additional explosions."

Off-duty Routine on C-pad: Later Bob continued, "When we did have our day off it was a blessing just to get out of the quonsets. To this day I hate playing cards, because that is all we did hour after hour. Pinochle and hearts till it came out of your ears. The lounge hut had a couple of old paperbacks and a TV with rabbit ears as I recall which didn't reduce the boredom a lot. Other than going to the chow hall which was only a few feet outside the fence we were in the Pad and stayed there. (The chow hall fare was not all that bad since it was made in the main base chow hall and trucked over to us. Since we weren't manned for KP, local nationals came with the food to serve and keep the place clean. That is until one of the mandatory local national strikes was called. Then they stacked C ration cans in the chow hall and first in got the best. The bread pudding was pretty cool. We would drive a pencil through the center of two of them, after they were out of the cans, and race them. I even got a can of Lucky Strike Greens, only the really old guys will know what I'm talking about there, and when I lit up it was like det cord! But I digress...)."

"Oh, I forgot to mention that we did have movies brought in. The Roadrunner was the favorite as I remember. It was so bad that the guys would watch West Side Story and hardly make comments!"

"Anyway, the day off really was not a full day in the sense that we were off from midnight to midnight. I think, it was more like 16 hours or so. We would get on the Kimchee Express bus and travel a dirt road to town for an OB or two with a charming bar girl to keep us company. When asked where we worked on Kunsan we lied...a bad way to begin a long term love affair I think. That was pretty much it for downtown for us. It was a bit daunting if your day off was in the middle of the week and you were in a foreign town for such a short time, so a lot of us stayed on base and did the golfing, bowling, club or just walked around. The ROKAF had F-86's and a couple of us would wander over to their area (and I could not point it out to you today if you had a gun to my head!) and got permission to look at the old birds. ... Other than that we had no contact with the ROKAF (other than the time a ROKAF F-86 strayed across the parallel and got shot up. For some reason he limped it all the way back to Kunsan and dumped near the runway. We went on FULL alert - I heard they even loaded 50's on T-33's in Japan - until the all clear. Talk about an adrenaline rush!). ... Other than that not much went on during days off. Just not being on the Pad was nice. Getting away from the card games, for me, was the biggest blessing of all."

Later Bob provided some information about the golf course that was now in operation. The course is in the same basic location with the end-of-runway/dearm area right across the street. He wrote, "I remember the golf course well...never had a club in my had and my cute Korean caddy handed me one, I swung that sucker for all I was worth and saw it hook right over the runway into the path of an inbound B-57!!!! I put the club back in the bag, gave her a tip and headed to the Club to do what I did best. Never have had a golf club in my hand since."

Bob parroted an interesting -- but untrue -- rumor that has been rotating around Kunsan for years...and still floats around today. It is the one of the hangar where the American GI's were executed by North Koreans and/or Chicoms and hung up on meat hooks. Nice rumor, but not true. First, there were no GIs stationed at Kunsan in 1950 and all the fighting with U.S. forces was taking place up in Taejon. Second, the ROKAF hangar did not even exist until about 1959. In addition, he mentioned a place called "Marine Hill" which was the rumored site of Marines fighting to the last man on the hill. The truth was that the hill never had any Marines on it. During the North Korean invasion, there were ROK Marines who fought on the Changhang side of the Kumgang river, but no U.S. Marines. During the Korean War, there was a Marine GCI unit, the MCGIS-1 (later redesignated the MACS-1) which was located near the Yellow Sea perimeter. In 1953, it moved to a hill outside the base. Though the tale was untrue, the rumor mills are what make life interesting for GIs -- and now we know that "Big Coyote" (the hill) had another name back then.

Bob continued, "Once in awhile a crew would volunteer to make a burger run to the NCO club. They would take orders for up to 30 burgers, fries and cokes, leave the roving patrol to fill in in case of an alert, and head out. On the way we would ask the sky cops doing sentry duty for their orders too. Into the club we would walk with our Pad-C arm bands and go to the head of any line we wanted (All that power!!!) and order up. The ploy was to order a coke while we waited at the bar. When a couple of sips had been taken the Korean bartender would grab the coke can, put it behind the bar and "freshen" it up a bit. Not too much mind you, but it did bring a smile. When the order was done we would head out once again. One night the flightline bread-truck we were driving suddenly without explanation ended taking us onto the active runway. Kunsan's skycops apparently saw little humor in this and the chase was on. But even with that we did manage to deliver the burgers to our sentry buddies through aerial delivery from the speeding van. We made it to the Pad gate handed them their chow and they let us in. A rather loud argument ensued between the Kunsan cops and our guys as to whose jurisdiction we were under. We heard weapons being cocked (I told you they were a serious lot!) and it became quiet once again."

The mistake of making a wrong turn in the dark would be very easy for someone new to the base as Taxiway Charlie (which leads to the runway) must be crossed to get to the C-pad. If upon coming back, you made the right turn too early, you'd be right on the active runway. Nowadays there are flashing lights and other signals that would prevent this...but this was 1960.

B-57 with Mt. Fuji
(Courtesy Jack Stoob )

Jack Stoob of Arcata, California was a Navigator/Bombadier in the 8th Bomb Squadron (Tactical) from approximately November 1958 to October 1962. He first arrived TDY to Kunsan in Dec 58 and had many opportunities to revisit the Kunsan C-pad because of the monthly rotations circulated between the squadrons.

Jack wrote, "My memory is a bit hazy but actually we were not too bored as I remember. There were running poker and bridge games going on all the time. I was a bridge player; at a tenth of a cent a point. An arriving crew would simply take the place of departing crew members' at either a poker or bridge table. Sometimes played up to sixteen hours a day." He added, "Also, towards the end of my tour a nine hole golf course was made available to us, if I recall correctly."

He wrote, "Our daily routine included going to the officer's club for dinner and a movie. The movie was often interrupted by a loss of power." He later wrote that the name of the club was the "Bottom of the Mark." He went on, "I also recall that the only vegetable available there was lima beans. I still can't stand them." During this time, the local produce was fertilized with "night soil" (human waste) and all of local produce was considered unfit for consumption. As a result, on canned "greens" were authorized.

When asked about his general impressions of Kunsan, he stated, "I don't have any real positive or negative impressions of the base. We were all in the same boat and made the best of having to be there. Because of the comradeship of all there, it didn't seem so bad. Of course, we all would have rather been back with our famlies but such was not the case. In fact, I had to be evacuated back from Kunsan to Johnson/Yokota three different times to be there for the birth of each of our three children. Tough on my wife but such was life at the time."

He added later, "I do recall that early in my tours at Kunsan, we all slept in buildings near the officer's club. I'll be sending a picture of one in the future. In the middle of my stint there the sleeping quarters were on the pad itself. In the same building where the poker and bridge games were on-going. Near the end of my tour a permanent type barracks building(s) were constructed and became our sleeping quarters. These were again near the officer's club. I believe these were built about the same time that the golf course was built."

(Go to 6175th ABG (1958) for photos of the base that Jack contributed. The photos are great in that they capture buildings left from the Korean War that would soon be leveled to make way for modern structures.)

After the End of Nuclear Alert: The rotation continued until April of 1964, when the 3rd BG returned to Yokota to begin the process of inactivation. According to Baugher site , "This would ordinarily have been the end of the service of the B-57B with the USAF, with the 3rd BG being inactivated and all its planes being transferred to the Air National Guard. However, the worsening situation in Indochina led to orders for the 8th and 13th Bomb Squadrons of the 3rd BG to deploy to Clark AFB in the Philippines for possible action in Vietnam. As it happened, this move did not take place until August 5, following the Gulf of Tonkin incident in which North Vietnamese gunboats clashed with US destroyers."

After the deactivation of the 3rd Bombardment Wing, the nuclear commitment at Kunsan was continued by F-100s from the 39th Air Division of Misawa AB, Japan from 1964-1967. It was not until 1968 that 475th TFW Det 1 assumed standing nuclear alert at Kunsan.

"Little John" F-100D -- 39th AD, 416th TFS
Misawa AB, Japan (Nov 1961)
(Click on photo to enlarge)

The 39th Air Division also maintained a detachment at Kunsan that was collocated with the B-57s on the C-pad. By the end of 1957, the tactical squadrons of USAFE had began to re-equip with the F-100 Super Sabre, and early in 1958, the 38th Bomb Group returned to the U.S. to begin deactivation. As the units transitioned to the F-100s, the B-57s were being turned over to the ANG units.

Planning for the eventual deactivation of the 3rd Bomb Wing and phasing out of the B-57s, the 39th AD started a Detachment of F-100s at Kunsan to assume their function. Operating on a rotation basis, the two F-100D squadrons took turns standing alert at Kunsan. Unlike the monthly squadron rotations of the 3rd Bomb Wing, the 39th AD had a one-week rotation where one's turn came up every three-four weeks.

416th TFS & 531st TFS: According to 21st Space Wing History , the 416th and 531st TFS were initially part of the 21st TFW and transitioned from the F-86Gs to the F-100Ds in 1959. It stated, " In addition to routine alert commitments and deployments to Korea , two F-100s from the 531st made the first American jet aircraft trans-polar flight, flying from Weathersfield, England to Eielson AB, Alaska on 7 August 1959." Thus we see that both squadrons were supporting commitments in Korea. It continued, "The 21st Tactical Fighter Wing inactivated on 18 June 1960 and its assets were transferred to the 39th Air Division at Misawa."

In June 1960, the 21st TFW was deactivated and the F-100D units transferred to the 39th Air Division. At that time, they started standing the nuclear alerts at Kunsan. In 1960, the 39th Air Division was made up of four flying squadrons:

• 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron , "Polka Dots", flying the RF-101 which was at Misawa AB, Japan, 3 Mar 1955-31 May 1971. Attached to the 39AD from 1960-1968 when it was assigned to the 475th TFW.
  
  
  45th TRS

• 4th Fighter Interceptor Squadron flying the F-86D, training for Japanese Self-Defense Force, Korean and Thai Air Force pilots on the F-86 aircraft (1954-1960) and F-102 (1960-1965). In 1965, moved to 33rd TFW in Eglin, FL.
  
  
  4th TFS

• 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron , flying the F-100D. (NOTE: Replaced by the 523rd TFS in 1964. Go to 27th TFW Squadrons (Deployed to Misawa) (Jun 1964 - Jun 1965) (523 TFS/524th TFS: Cannon AFB, New Mexico) .) 523rd departed in 1965 for Clark AB, PI.)
• 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron , "Silver Knights", flying the F-100D. (NOTE: Replaced by the 524th TFS in 1964. Go to 27th TFW Squadrons (Deployed to Misawa) (Jun 1964 - Jun 1965) (523 TFS/524th TFS: Cannon AFB, New Mexico) .) 524th departed in 1965 for Holloman AB.)
  
  
  416th TFS