On Friday, Steve Wallace and I, as Honorary Commanders of the 43rd Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base, attended the unveiling of the 43rd’s Heritage Flagship.

It is a T-1A Jayhawk which painted in a heritage scheme from World War II brings to the forefront the distinguished history of the 43rd. Today the 43rd is a squadron of the 340th Flying Training Group and is the Air Force Reserve Squadron at Columbus. It is commanded by Lt. Col. Tom McElhinney

My ties to the 43rd are not just as an Honorary Commander. The 43rd provided air crew training for the B-17 crews that in late 1942 were organized into several new bomb groups including the 96th Bomb Group. My father was in the 96th BG, though in a replacement crew and not an original crew.

The 43rd had its origins almost 80 years ago on December 22, 1939 as the 29th Bombardment Squadron which was then redesignated the 43rd Bombardment Squadron on March 13, 1940 at Langely Field, Virginia. Its first commander was Maj. William D. Old. Old retired in 1954 as a major general whose commands had included the 12th and 9th Air Forces. He has also been credited as being the pilot for the first transport flight across the hump from India to China in 1942.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States entered WW 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 WW II 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 US coast. Some ships were even sunk at the mouth of the Mississippi River and along the Louisiana coast.

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, 381th, 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 bomber unit at Pratt Army Airfield, Kansas. Though the squadron had become a B-29 squadron, its B-29s had not arrived at the field and the squadron began its B-29 training with its existing B-17s. Several weeks later the B-29s arrived. 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 on February 25, 1945, to Tokyo. During its first several weeks of combat the 43rd went after strategic targets in daylight attacks from high altitude. By the end of March, the squadron was flying nighttime low-level bombing missions.

With the US 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 August 14-15, 1945, the 43rd flew on the final combat mission of the war bombing Kumayaga, Japan. Of the 93 B-29s on that final mission, 77 were from the 314th Bombardment Wing which included the 43rd Squadron. On August 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 and the squadron was again inactivated.

On June 25, 1990, the squadron was reactivated as a flying training squadron at Columbus AFB but was deactivated in 1992. The unit was again activated at Columbus but as the 43rd Flying Training Flight in 1997 and then reactivated as a squadron on June 5, 1998, to provide associate reserve pilots to support the mission of the 14th Flying Training Wing.

Today the 43rd FTS continues its mission to administer and execute “the AETC/AFRC Associate Instructor Pilot Program and provide Active Guard Reserve and Traditional Reserve instructor pilots to augment the cadre of active duty pilots conducting pilot training. During wartime, or in the event of hostilities, the unit is mobilized to offset anticipated losses of experienced active duty pilot contributions to the instructor pilot training program,” according to CAFB’s website.

The 43rd FTS has a continuing heritage of helping to defend the United States and “building the world’s best warriors, leaders and professional military pilots.” The heritage of the squadron is evidenced by it having earned three campaign streamers, three Distinguished Unit Citations and numerous other awards. It is a grand and continuing heritage.

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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