115th Airlift Squadron

115th Airlift Squadron
115th Observation Squadron Douglas O-38 Preparing for a target towing mission at Camp Merriam, now Camp San Luis Obispo, in 1933
Active	1917 – present
Country	United States
Allegiance	California
Branch	Air National Guard
Type	Squadron
Role	Airlift
Part of	California Air National Guard
Garrison/HQ	Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Oxnard, California
Tail Code	Channel Islands
Engagements	World War II World War I
Insignia
115th Airlift Squadron emblem

The 115th Airlift Squadron (115 AS) is a unit of the California Air National Guard 146th Airlift Wing located at Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Oxnard, California. The 115th is equipped with the C-130J Hercules.

The 115 AS is the oldest unit in the California Air National Guard, having almost 90 years of service to the state and nation. It is a descendant organization of the World War I 115th Aero Squadron, established on 28 August 1917. It was reformed on 16 June 1924, as the 115th Observation Squadron, and is one of the 29 original National Guard Observation Squadrons of the United States Army National Guard formed before World War II.

The 115th Airlift Squadron traces its origins to the 115th Aero Squadron, organized at Kelly Field, Texas on 28 August 1917. It was formed from three groups of recruits, one from Fort McDowell, Santa Rosa, California, made up of men from the Pacific Coast States. The second group came from Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas, made up of men from Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. The third, and largest group reported from Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, and with it came recruits from the Mississippi Valley. At Kelly Field, the recruits were indoctrinated into the ways and means of the Army. Orders for the unit to serve overseas were received on 14 October, and with five other squadrons, the 115th departed on 31 October for the Aviation Concentration Center, Garden City, Long Island, arriving on 31 October. It was there that final arrangements were made for the trip overseas, complete equipment was drawn and a final few transfers were made. On 3 December, orders were issued for the 115th to move to the New York Port of Embarkation, Hoboken, New Jersey, where the men boarded the SS Huron, an impressed German ship that was used as a troop transport. After an uneventful cross-Atlantic voyage, the squadron arrived at St. Nazarire, France, on 20 December. The squadron was moved to a troop train and headed immediately for Tours Aerodrome, in central France.