Squadrons · from 1944

563rd Rescue Group

US Air Force unit.

History

The 563rd Rescue Group (officially 563d Rescue Group) is a United States Air Force unit stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. The group also controls the rescue squadrons at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. It is assigned to the 355th Wing. The group directs flying operations dedicated to personnel recovery and is part of Air Combat Command. The group was activated under its current designation at Davis-Monthan in 2003 to command rescue units in the western United States.

The group was first activated during World War II as the 3rd Emergency Rescue Squadron at Keesler Field, Mississippi. After training on the Gulf Coast, the squadron moved to the Southwest Pacific Theater in the fall of 1944, and served in combat until the surrender of Japan, earning a Philippine Presidential Unit Citation. After the war, the squadron moved to Japan, where it became part of the occupation forces, and was located there when the Korean War began. It again served in combat, expanding to become the 3rd Air Rescue Group in 1952, and earning two Distinguished Unit Citations and two Korean Presidential Unit Citations during the war. The group was inactivated in 1957, when Air Rescue Service eliminated its groups and assigned its squadrons directly to its regional rescue centers.

The group was organized again at Tan Son Nhut Airport in 1966 as the 3rd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group, to command United States Air Force rescue units engaged in the War in Vietnam. It participated in every campaign after 1966, winning an additional four Presidential Unit Citations, an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device and two Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm during combat in Southeast Asia. When the United States withdrew from Vietnam, the group moved its headquarters to Thailand and, after participating in the evacuations of Phnom Penh and Saigon, was inactivated there in 1976.

Text from Wikipedia: 563rd Rescue Group, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

1944
The ground echelon arrived at Oakland Army Base, California on 20 May 1944 to ship out for Australia on the SS Boschfontein, arriving at Archerfield Airport near Brisbane, Australia on 17 June.
1944
The squadron's first combat mission was flown on 21 September 1944, when it picked up two downed Navy fliers.
1949
Air Rescue Service, 1 May 1949 – 18 June 1957 (attached to Fifth Air Force, 1 May 1949, 314th Air Division, 18 May 1951, Japanese Air Defense Force, 14 November 1952, Far East Air Forces, 1 August 1954 – 18 June 1957)
1950
Following the North Korean invasion of South Korea on 25 June 1950, the squadron deployed two L-5 Sentinels and one Douglas SC-47 Skytrain to Pusan West Air Base to perform search and rescue missions.
1952
37th Air Rescue Squadron (later 37th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron): 14 November 1952 – 8 May 1955; 8 January 1966 – 20 August 1972
1954
As Air Rescue Service shrank from a peak of 50 squadrons in 1954, the 37th Squadron was inactivated in May 1955.
1965
Redesignated 3rd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Group and activated on 14 December 1965 (not organized)
1969
Reductions in the size of the group began in December 1969, when the local base rescue detachment at Binh Thuy Air Base was discontinued.
2003
Since reactivating in 2003 as the 563rd Rescue Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, the group has deployed airmen and aircraft almost annually in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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