Activation of the 41st Transport Squadron

This past December marked the 75th anniversary of the U.S. entry into the Second World War. With that, over the next couple years, you’re likely to see military units activated during that conflict likewise marking their “diamond jubilee” origins.   During February 2017, the 41st Airlift Squadron commemorates its “diamond jubilee.” Two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, on 18 February 1942, the 41st Transport Squadron activated at Duncan Field, Texas; the unit redesignated a few months later as the 41st Troop Carrier Squadron.   Beginning in 1943, the 41st Troop Carrier Squadron formed part of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s “Island Hopping” force in the Pacific Theater of Operations. Its C-47 Skytrain crews – commonly referred to as the “Jungle Skippers” – ferried supplies and personnel throughout the southern and southwestern regions of the theater, and was briefly stationed in Okinawa at war’s end.   From there, the Black Cats have contributed airlift support to the Berlin Airlift in 1948; to United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Congo in 1960; to the Vietnam War (when it was renamed the 41st Tactical Airlift Squadron); to Central America during the 1980s; to Bosnia in the 1990s; to the Global War on Terror beginning in the 2000s; and various other operations – humanitarian and otherwise – since.   In 1992, it was redesignated as today’s 41st Airlift Squadron. And after calling Pope AFB in North Carolina home for 36 years, the squadron relocated to Little Rock AFB in 2007 as part of Air Force realignment.   Since its inception in 1942, the 41st Airlift Squadron has experienced only three years of inactivity.