On Thursday morning I attended the change of command ceremony for the 43rd Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base.

Lt Col. Anthony McKee was turning command of the squadron over to Lt. Col Thomas Collins.

The ceremony was presided over by Col. Kyle Goldstein, commander of the 340th Flying Training Group of which the 43rd FTS is a part. The change of command ceremony in the U.S. military dates to the Revolutionary War and made for an impressive event on a beautiful morning.

The tone of the morning was set with the singing of “The Star Spangled Banner” followed by an invocation. As the ceremony continued, its significance was punctuated by the constant sound of T-38s and T-6 Texans taking off and landing on a nearby runway. It was a background sound that added an exclamation point to remarks by Col. Goldstein, Lt. Col. McKee and Lt. Col. Collins and the passing of the squadron’s guidon by Col. Goldstein to Lt. Col. Collins. The passing of the unit’s guidon to its new commander was part of the more than 240-year-old tradition of a U.S. military change of command.

As we watch the horrors of war in the Ukraine and Israel, we are shown the risk that all of our military personnel take in order to protect us. Lt. Cols. McKee and Collins of Columbus AFB and Col. Goldstein of Randolph AFB exemplify the dedication and expertise of members of the U S Air Force.

Lt. Col. McKee was a former C-5 Galaxy aircraft commander prior to coming to Columbus and the 43rd. He is a command pilot with more than 5,800 military flying hours including combat/combat support in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Freedom in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Collins has been serving as Operations Officer for the 43rd. In that capacity he directed all operations of the squadron’s more than 80 officers and enlisted personnel. Collins is a former B-52 commander with more than 240 combat hours over Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a command pilot with over 2,900 military flying hours.

The 43rd Flying Training Squadron has an impressive history itself. My ties to the 43rd are not just as a former honorary commander.

The 43rd provided air crew training for B-17 and later B-24 bomber crews from June 1942 until April 1944. One of the bomb groups receiving training was the 96th Bomb Group. My father was a B-17 tail gunner in the 96th BG.

The 43rd had its origins almost 80 years ago on Dec. 22, 1939, as the 29th Bombardment Squadron, which was then redesignated the 43rd Bombardment Squadron on March 13, 1940, at Langley Field, Virginia.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States entered World War II, the 43rd was stationed at Pope Field, North Carolina, as a squadron of the 29th Bomb Group flying B-18s and B-17s. January 1942 found the 43rd based at MacDill Field, Florida. From December 1941 to June 1942, the squadron flew anti-submarine patrols along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean.

One of the little-told stories of WWII was the extensive German U-boat activity along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts during 1942.

Many cargo ships and especially oil tankers were sunk by U-boats along the U.S. coast. In 1942 69 ships were attacked by German U-boats in the Gulf with 48 being sunk. Some ships were even sunk at the mouth of the Mississippi River and along the Louisiana coast.

Few people realize just how close to us a battle was raging in 1942-43.

In June 1942 the squadron moved to Gowen Field, Idaho, where it became an operational training unit. In late 1942 several bomb groups were formed at Gowen where the 43rd was providing training. They included the 96th, 381st, 384th and 388th Bomb Groups.

By early 1943 the 43rd had become a replacement training squadron training B-24 crews before deployment to England and combat.

On April 1, 1944, the 29th BG of which the 43rd was a squadron was inactivated at Gowen but on the same day reactivated as a B-29 bomb group at Pratt Army Airfield, Kansas. After completing training, the 29th Bomb Group was deployed overseas to North Field, Gaum, where the 29th became part of the 314th Bombardment Wing.

I remember my father telling me he had a heck of an introduction to combat as his first mission was Berlin. The same can be said for the 43rd, for its first combat mission was Feb. 25, 1945, to Tokyo. During its first several weeks of combat the 43rd bombed strategic targets in daylight attacks from high altitude. By the end of March, the squadron was flying nighttime low-level bombing missions.

With the U.S. assault on Okinawa and the sudden extensive Japanese use of kamikaze suicide attacks, the 43rd began bombing airfields from which the kamikaze pilots were operating. On the night of Aug. 14-15, 1945, the 43rd participated in the final combat missions of the war. That night 77 B-29s from the 314th Bombardment Wing which included the 43rd Squadron bombed Kumayaga, Japan. Early morning on Aug. 15, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japan had surrendered.

At the end of the war the squadron flew mercy missions dropping food and supplies to liberated allied POWs, flew reconnaissance missions and was part of show of force missions. The 43rd then returned to the United States at the end of 1945 and was inactivated on May 20, 1946. During the war the squadron had received two Distinguished Unit Citations.

In 1972, the 43rd was reactivated as a flying training squadron at Craig AFB in Alabama. There it conducted undergraduate pilot training until the base closed in 1977. The squadron was reactivated at Columbus AFB in 1990 and in 1998 became a reserve squadron to provide associate reserve pilots to support the mission of the 14th Flying Training Wing.

The 43rd FTS continues to provides Columbus AFB with Active Guard Reserve and Traditional Reserve instructor pilots who join with active duty pilots in conducting pilot training at the base. It has a continuing heritage of helping to defend the United States and “building the world’s best warriors, leaders and professional military pilots.” That is a heritage which continued under Lt. Col. McKee and will continue under Lt. Col. Collins.

The personnel of Columbus Air Force Base serve our country and willingly put their lives at risk for us as they face today’s volatile and violent world. To the “Firebirds” of the 43rd FTS and all members of our armed forces we owe a debt of gratitude greater than we can ever repay.

Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].

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