Happy 77th Birthday 34th Combat Training Squadron

September 1, 2017, marked 77 years since the activation of the 34th School Squadron, forerunner to today’s 34th Combat Training Squadron. Just a few weeks after the U.S. entered the Second World War in December 1941, the unit was redesignated the 34th Technical School Squadron. And for more than three-and-a-half years, unit instructors taught radio repair and radio operator courses to students bound for either the European or Pacific Theaters of war. In 1981, 37 years after disbanding, the 34th was reactivated as a Technical Training Squadron at Little Rock AFB. And the Air Force approved the unit’s emblem on the left shortly afterward in 1982. At that time, the 34th TTS was responsible for all academic, simulator refresher, and instructor training in C-130 tactical airlift. From 1994-2003, it was redesignated the Air Force’s Combat Aerial Delivery School (or CADS); and the 34th Combat Training Squadron in 2003, which it has remained for 14 years, providing joint mobility training for combat Airmen and soldiers. As you can see on the current emblem – the most recent rendition of it approved in 2012 – the 34th’s motto is, “Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum” (sē-ˈwēs-ˈpä-ˌkem ˈpä-rä-ˈbe-ˌlu̇m\), a Latin quote meaning, “If you want peace, prepare for war.”