46th Tactical Missile Squadron

File:Four C-47 escorted by P-40s over New Guinea.jpg

The squadron was first activated under the 317th Transport Group (later 317th Troop Carrier Group), an element of Air Transport Command (later I Troop Carrier Command) in May 1942 as the group expanded from three to four squadrons.Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 195–196 The group and squadron equipped with Douglas C-47 Skytrains and trained at several airfields in Texas, the midwest and the southeast. It also performed various airlift missions as part of its training.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}} The squadron deployed to Australia, arriving in January 1943 as an element of Fifth Air Force. It made numerous flights in unarmed planes over the Owen Stanley Range transporting reinforcement and supplies to Wau, Papua New Guinea, where enemy forces were threatening a valuable Allied airdrome, for which it was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation. It performed paratroop drops at Nadzab (the first airborne operation in the Southwest Pacific) and Noemfoor in New Guinea; Tagaytay, Luzon, and Corregidor and Aparri in the Philippines. Also performed cargo airlift, supply and evacuation, and other assigned missions along the northern coast of New Guinea; the Dutch East Indies and in the Philippines as part of MacArthur's island hopping offensive against the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}} This included supplying guerillas in Mindanao, Cebu, and Panay. In April 1945, it bombed Carabao Island with drums of napalm.

The squadron deployed to Okinawa in August 1945 after the Japanese capitulation and became part of the American occupation forces. It replaced its C-47s with longer range Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft and moved to Japan and the Korean peninsula during late 1945. Its initial post-war missions included the evacuation of former Allied prisoners of war; later primarily cargo transport missions in the occupied areas of Japan and Korea during the postwar era.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}} The squadron inactivated in 1949 in Japan due to budget constraints; its aircraft being assigned to other units as part of the consolidation.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}}

The squadron was activated as the 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron (BOMARC) in 1959 at McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey,Cornett & Johnson, p. 150 and stood alert during the Cold War, with IM-99A (later CIM-10) BOMARC surface to air antiaircraft missiles. The squadron was tied into a Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) direction center which could use analog computers to process information from ground radars, picket ships and airborne aircraftWinkler & Webster, p. 39 to accelerate the display of tracking data at the direction center to quickly direct the missile site to engage hostile aircraft.Winkler & Webster, p. 3 It trained personnel and prepared for operation of the BOMARC surface-to-air missiles; operated and maintained BOMARC missiles and associated equipment, trained personnel, and maintained a capability to intercept and destroy hostile aircraft until inactivation. The squadron was inactivated on 31 October 1972, one of the last two BOMARC missile squadrons inactivated.

The BOMARC missile site was located {{convert|4|mi|km}} east-southeast of McGuire Air Force Base at {{Coord|40|02|06|N|074|26|29|W|display=inline|name=46th ADMS}}.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}} Although geographically separated from the base, it was an off base facility of McGuire and the squadron received administrative and logistical support from McGuire.Mueller, p. 412

The 46th Troop Carrier Squadron and the 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron were consolidated on 19 September 1985 as the 46th Tactical Missile Squadron while remaining inactive.

46th Troop Carrier Squadron

• Constituted as the 46th Transport Squadron on 30 May 1942

: Activated on 15 June 1942

: Redesignated as the 46th Troop Carrier Squadron on 4 July 1942

: Redesignated as the 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, Medium on 10 August 1948

: Inactivated on 1 April 1949

• Consolidated with the 46 Air Defense Missile Squadron on 19 September 1985

46th Air Defense Missile Squadron

: Constituted as the 46th Air Defense Missile Squadron (BOMARC) on 10 December 1958

: Activated on 1 January 1959

: Inactivated on 31 October 1972

• Consolidated with the 46 Troop Carrier Squadron on 19 September 1985

• 317th Transport Group (later 317th Troop Carrier Group), 15 June 1942
• Fifth Air Force, 18 August 1948 – 1 April 1949 (attached to 317th Troop Carrier Wing), 18 August 1948, 6146th Station Group, 1 October 1948, 374th Troop Carrier Group, 5 March 1949 - 1 April 1949
• New York Air Defense Sector, 1 January 1959
• 21st Air Division, 1 April 1966
• 35th Air Division, 1 December 1967 – 1 October 1972

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• Duncan Field, Texas, 15 June 1942
• Bowman Field, Kentucky, 19 June 1942;
• Lawson Field, Georgia, 10 October 1942
• Laurinburg-Maxton Airport, North Carolina, 3–12 December 1942
• Garbutt Field, Australia, 23 January 1943
• Port Moresby Airfield Complex, Papua New Guinea, 1 October 1943
• Finschhafen Airfield, Papua New Guinea, 19 April 1944
• Hollandia Airfield Complex, New Guinea, 5 July 1944

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• Tanauan Airfield, Leyte, Philippines, 19 November 1944{{Citation needed|reason=need support for exact location on Leyte|date=July 2012}}
• Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines, March 1945
• Kadena Airfield, Okinawa, 19 August 1945{{Citation needed|reason=need support for exact location on Okinawa|date=July 2012}}
• Seoul Airport, Korea, 19 October 1945
• Tachikawa Airfield, Japan, 19 January 1946
• Kimpo Airfield, Korea, 10 July 1946
• Matsushima Air Field, Japan, 1 August 1948
• Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, 1 October 1948 – 1 April 1949
• McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, 1 January 1959 – 1 October 1972

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{{unit awards table

|award_image1=AF PUC

|award_name1=Distinguished Unit Citation

|award_date1=30 January 1943-1 February 1943

|award_notes1=46th Troop Carrier Squadron, Papua New Guinea

|award_image2=AF PUC

|award_name2=Distinguished Unit Citation

|award_date2=16 February 1945-17 February 1945

|award_notes2=46th Troop Carrier Squadron, Philippine Islands

|award_image3=PPUC

|award_name3=Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation

|award_date3=19 November 1944-4 July 1945

|award_notes3=46th Troop Carrier Squadron

}}

• Douglas C-47 Skytrain, 1942–1945
• Curtiss C-46 Commando, 1945–1949
• Boeing IM-99 (later CIM-10) BOMARC, 1959-1972

• List of United States Air Force missile squadrons
• List of Douglas C-47 Skytrain operators
• BOMARC missile accident site

; Explanatory notes

{{Notelist}}

; Citations

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Air Force Historical Research Agency}}

• {{cite book|last=Cornett|first=Lloyd H|author2=Johnson, Mildred W|title=A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization, 1946–1980|url=http://www.usafpatches.com/pubs/handbookofadcorg.pdf|year=1980|publisher=Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center|location=Peterson AFB, CO|access-date=2012-07-06|archive-date=2016-02-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213173347/http://www.usafpatches.com/pubs/handbookofadcorg.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite book|editor=Maurer, Maurer|title=Air Force Combat Units of World War II|orig-year= 1961|url= http://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/21/2001330256/-1/-1/0/AFD-100921-044.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161220180735/http://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/21/2001330256/-1/-1/0/AFD-100921-044.pdf |url-status= dead |archive-date= 20 December 2016 |edition=reprint|year=1983|publisher=Office of Air Force History|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0-912799-02-1|lccn=61060979}}
• {{cite book|editor=Maurer, Maurer|title=Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II|orig-year=1969|url= http://media.defense.gov/2010/Dec/02/2001329899/-1/-1/0/AFD-101202-002.pdf|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161220180455/http://media.defense.gov/2010/Dec/02/2001329899/-1/-1/0/AFD-101202-002.pdf|url-status= dead|archive-date= 20 December 2016|edition= reprint|year=1982|publisher=Office of Air Force History|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0-405-12194-6|oclc=72556|lccn=70605402}}
• {{cite book|last=Mueller|first=Robert|title=Air Force Bases, Vol. I, Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982|url= https://media.defense.gov/2010/Sep/21/2001330255/-1/-1/0/AFD-100921-026.pdf |year=1989|publisher=Office of Air Force History|location=Washington, DC|isbn=0-912799-53-6|page=412}}
• {{cite book|last=Winkler|first=David F.|author2=Webster, Julie L|title=Searching the skies: The legacy of the United States Cold War Defense Radar Program|url= http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bn/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA331231 |year=1997|publisher=US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories|location=Champaign, IL|page=39|lccn=97020912}}{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

{{USAAF 5th Air Force World War II}}

{{Aerospace Defense Command|state=autocollapse}}

{{USAF Korea}}

046

Category:1942 establishments in the United States