Military unit
The 352d Tactical Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force fighter squadron. Its last assignment was with the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phan Rang Air Base, South Vietnam, where it was inactivated on 31 July 1971.
The first predecessor of the squadron was activated in 1943 as the 372d Fighter Squadron, which served as a Lockheed P-38 Lightning Replacement Training Unit until it was disbanded in 1944.
The second predecessor of the squadron was the 652d Bombardment Squadron, which conducted weather reconnaissance in the European Theater of Operations.
The 352d Fighter-Day Squadron was formed during the Cold War, the squadron was attached to NATO, and stood on alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Deployed to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, the squadron fought with distinction. The squadron was inactivated there in 1971.
History.
World War II.
Fighter replacement training.
The 372d Fighter Squadron was activated in early 1943 at March Field, California as one of the three original squadrons of the 360th Fighter Group, but moved on paper to Glendale Airport the same day. It operated as a Lockheed P-38 Lightning Replacement Training Unit (RTU). RTUs were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters. In January 1944 the squadron moved away from its parent group and established a separate RTU at Santa Maria Army Air Field, California.
However, the Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving less well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, a more functional system was adopted in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. This resulted in the 372d, along with other units at Santa Maria, being disbanded in the spring of 1944 and being replaced by the 440th AAF Base Unit (Fighter Replacement Training Unit, Twin Engine).
Weather reconnaissance in the European Theater.
The second predecessor of the squadron was the 652d Bombardment Squadron, which conducted weather reconnaissance in the European Theater of Operations.
The 652d Bombardment Squadron replaced what began as a provisional weather reconnaissance detachment that was formed on 31 August 1943 with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, then transferred to RAF St Eval on 8 September 1943 to conduct meteorological fights over the Atlantic Ocean. On 25 October 1943 this provisional unit was formalized as Detachment A of the Combat Weather Detachment, 1st Combat Crew Replacement Center at RAF Bovingdon. On 23 November 1943 the detachment joined its parent at Bovingdon. On 28 March 1944 Eighth Air Force replaced the detachment with the 8th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (Heavy) (Provisional). The squadron was one of the three squadrons of the 8th Reconnaissance Group (Provisional) (later the 802d Reconnaissance Group, Special (Provisional).
In August 1944 Eighth Air Force replaced its provisional weather reconnaissance units with permanent ones and the 652d was activated. The 652d primarily flew B-17Gs, although at first it also had B-24Ds and B-24Hs. Its missions were long-range weather flights code named "Epicure" In which the aircraft flew a box pattern 700 miles out over the Atlantic. Weather readings were taken every 50 miles at heights varying from 50 to 30,000 feet. The average flight time for these flights was over 12 hours. For thirteen months the squadron maintained an average of 1.5 aircraft in the air over the Atlantic at all hours of the day and night, and for the last nine months of the war the average exceeded two aircraft in the air for all hours of the day and night.
When its parent 25th Bombardment Group returned to the United States after the German surrender in May 1945, the 652d was assigned to 1st Air Division and continued to fly weather missions. The squadron returned to the United States in December and was inactivated when it reached the port of embarkation.
Cold War.
On 25 September 1957 Tactical Air Command (TAC) activated the 352d Fighter-Day Squadron and assigned it to the 354th Fighter-Day Wing at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, South Carolina. The squadron was equipped with the North American F-100 Super Sabre.
The 354th Wing was committed to NATO support, and the squadron frequently deployed to Europe. It deployed to Adana Air Base, Turkey in July 1958 in response to the Crisis in Lebanon, to support the pro-western government of Lebanon, which believed itself threatened by internal dissension supported by the United Arab Republic. The squadron returned in October.
After the Lebanon Crisis, TAC began to rotate combat squadrons to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey and Aviano Air Base, Italy in support of NATO alert commitments and Air Force weapons training at the Maniago Range. The 352d, along with the 354th Wing's other squadrons, periodically supported these rotations.
During the Berlin Crisis precipitated by the erection of the Berlin Wall by the German Democratic Republic in August 1961 and the subsequent face-off of American and Soviet tanks in Berlin, the squadron deployed to Hahn Air Base, German Federal Republic, in November 1961. Once tensions eased, the squadron returned in March 1962.
The squadron deployed a third time in response to a Cold War crisis, but this time the deployment was closer to home. During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the 352d deployed to McCoy Air Force Base, Florida in October where it became part of the forces attached to the Air Division, Provisional, 2d. After the crisis ended, the 352d returned home in December.
Vietnam War.
As the intensity of the Viet Nam War increased in 1966, The United States Air Force began to replace its rotational units on temporary duty in Southeast Asia with permanent ones. As a result, the 352d Tactical Fighter Squadron moved to Phan Rang Air Base, South Vietnam on 15 August 1966, where it was assigned to the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing. Two months later Pacific Air Forces moved the 366th Wing to Da Nang Air Base where it became an F-4 Phantom II wing, while the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing took its place at Phan Rang, with F-100 Super Sabre squadrons in a swap of wing headquarters designations.
Squadron missions included close air support of ground forces, air interdiction, visual and armed air reconnaissance, escort, and rapid reaction alert.
During the Cambodian Campaign of 1970, the 352d struck enemy bases and supply caches in the Parrot's Beak area just inside the Cambodian border during April and May. The 352d also provided close air support and interdiction in support of South Vietnamese operations in Laos and Cambodia during January through June 1971.
In April 1971 the 352d began phasing down for inactivation and flew its last combat mission on 26 June 1971. The squadron was inactivated, along with the 35th Wing on 31 July 1971 as part of the American drawdown in Vietnam. The squadron was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation and four Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards w/Combat "V" Device for its combat performance.
Consolidation.
In September 1985, the three squadrons were consolidated under the 352d Tactical Fighter Squadron designation, but have remained inactive.
 Activated on 15 January 1943
 Disbanded on 31 March 1944
Lineage.
Aircraft.
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References.
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