| The way we were activated and then terminated. | |
| 735th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron History The 154th Aircraft Control & Warning Group (Air National Guard), composed of the 116th, 117th, 118th, and the 129th AC&W Squadrons entered active service on 8 January 1951. This Group was moved to Sewart AFB, Smyrna, Tennessee for active duty collectively. The Group was deployed overseas to Morocco (at that time known as French Morocco) in June, 1952. The host base was Nouasseur AB, Morocco. The 154th Group moved from Nourasseur Air Base to Site #Y-11 near Rabat-Sale, Morocco in September 1952, and was redesignated 549th Aircraft Control & Warning Group. Upon its activation, the 549th was assigned the following Squadrons: 734th, 735th, 736th, and 737th AC&W Squadrons. the 549th AC&W Group coordinated operations for the defense of the important installations in Morocco. Headquarters USAFE, through General Order 66, dated 21 July 1953, established a more satisfactory organization to defend Morocco, by the activation of the 316th Air Division (Defense) with total control of all of the 549th AC&W and the subordinate outfits. In July 1956, Headquarters 17th Air Force moved from Rabat, Morocco to Wheelus Air Base, Tripoli. Concurrent with the move of Headquarters 17th Air Force to Ramstein,Germany on 15 November 1959, Headquarters 316th Air Division was relieved from assignment to 17th Air Force and reverted to direct assignment to USAFE by authority of USAFE General Order 109, dated 26 October 1959. USAFE General Order 11, dated 19 February 1960, ordered discontinuance of the 735th AC&W Squadron at Mechra bel Ksiri, Morocco. USAFE General Order 15 inactivated 316th Air Division, and redesignated the 7221st Air Base Squadron as the 7221st Air Base Group (USAFE) effective 1 April 1960, with certain7221st detachments (effective 18 March 1960), Detachment 5 (ex 735th ACWRON). All newly designated Detachments were placed under the control of the 7221st 1 April 1960. ************************ Additional info The 154th AC/W Group Shipped to Fr. Moroccofrom Sewart AFB in June of 1952This is how and why Sewart was formed.Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport The War Department ordered the construction of a Bombardment Air Base near Nashville on December 22, 1941, shortly after the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. A tract of land consisting of 3,325.11 acres located off US Route 70 in Rutherford County near Smyrna, Tennessee, was selected and acquired by the Department of Defense for use as an Army-Air Force Training Command Base. The Nashville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under the direction of Colonel O.E. Walsh, constructed the facility and had it ready for use by the Army Air Corps on July 1, 1942. Six thousand workers erected 200 buildings and air strips to accommodate 100 four-motor bombers to train crews for their tasks in the skies over Germany and Japan. B-17 and B-24 bombers were soon operating from the base’s runways. Following the war, the Air Base was deactivated but post-war complications reopened it under the new name of Sewart Air Force Base, in honor of Major Allen J. Sewart of Nashville who died in action in the Solomon Islands. Copied from Corp of Engineer web-page 11 April 2008 by Bob Rowe |
|
|
|
|