16th Reconnaissance Squadron

Squadron

The squadron was originally established as an Air Service flying training unit in May 1917, conducting flying training for air cadets in the Midwest throughout the summer. It deployed to France in January 1918, becoming an aircraft maintenance organization in rear areas of the Western Front. It remained in France until May 1919 when squadron returned to the United States and demobilized.[2]











Emblem of the 16th Reconnaissance Squadron

The 16th Squadron was established in 1921 as an observation squadron, attached to Army ground units throughout the 1920s and 1930s. It was consolidated with its predecessor in 1924. The 16th carried mail and performed fire observation duties, included carrying mail to President Calvin Coolidge vacationing in South Dakota and Wisconsin in August and September 1927, and June to September 1928.[2]



After the Attack on Pearl Harbor the squadron was reassigned to antisubmarine duties along the southeast coast in late 1941, early 1942. It deployed to the European Theater of Operations, where it was attached to the Royal Air Force reconnaissance school at RAF Wattisham, England in late 1942. While in England, the air echelon received modern Lockheed P-38 long-range photo-reconnaissance aircraft and joined the ground personnel in French Morocco shortly after the Operation Torch invasion in November 1942.

The squadron was assigned to Twelfth Air Force and engaged in long range intelligence gathering and aerial mapping of Algeria and Tunisia, supporting the United States Fifth Army during the North African and Tunisian Campaigns. After the retreat of Axis forces from Tunisia in mid-1942, performed antisubmarine patrols over the Mediterranean Sea and also functioned as in in-theater training unit for aerial reconnaissance pilots.[2]



Beginning in September 1943, the squadron received specially-equipped B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers equipped with radar detection and electronic countermeasures (ECM) equipment.[2] It performed ECM overflights of enemy territory in advance of Fifteenth Air Force heavy bomber formations, jamming enemy Radar and generating false returns to confuse defensive forces. It also continued to fly long range reconnaissance with B-25 Mitchell medium bombers fitted with aerial cameras..[citation needed] The Squadron returned to the United States in November 1944 as the need for the unit dissipated as enemy forces were driven out of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. It was inactivated in April 1945.[2]



The 16th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron served with Strategic Air Command as a long-range reconnaissance unit early in the Cold War. Its mission was absorbed by the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing in 1949. In 1985, it was consolidated with its predecessors,[3] but remained inactive until 1993, when it assumed its present mission.

Revisions

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