136th Airlift Squadron

136th Airlift Squadron
A C-130 Hercules from the 136th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron flies over rugged Afghan landscape on its way to delivering much-needed supplies to a forward operating base in Oruzgan Province, Afghanistan,
Active	1942–1945; 1948-Present
Country	United States
Allegiance	New York
Branch	Air National Guard
Type	Squadron
Role	Airlift
Part of	New York Air National Guard
Garrison/HQ	Niagara Falls Joint Air Reserve Station, New York
Tail Code	"Niagara" Blue stripe
Insignia
136th Airlift Squadron emblem

The 136th Airlift Squadron (136 AS) is a unit of the New York Air National Guard 107th Airlift Wing located at Niagara Falls Joint Air Reserve Station, New York. The 136th is equipped with the C-130H Hercules.

The squadron was first activated at Hunter Field, Georgia, as the 482d Bombardment Squadron, a Third Air Force Operational Training Unit (OTU), equipped with A-24 Banshee dive bombers. It moved to California in September 1943 as part of Desert Training Center in Mojave Desert.

After the A-24 was taken out of combat service, the squadron trained with Bell P-39 Airacobras and became combat ready as the 503d Fighter-Bomber Squadron, and became part of VIII Fighter Command in England in April 1944. It re-equipped with North American P-51 Mustangs, with a mission to escort Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers during its first five weeks of operations, and afterwards flew escort missions to cover the operations of medium and heavy bombers that struck strategic objectives, interdicted the enemy's communications, or supported operations on the ground.

The squadron frequently strafed airfields and other targets of opportunity while on escort missions. Provided fighter cover over the English Channel and the coast of Normandy during the invasion of France in June 1944. Strafed and dive-bombed vehicles, locomotives, marshalling yards, anti-aircraft batteries, and troops while Allied forces fought to break out of the beachhead in France. It attacked transportation targets as Allied armies drove across France after the breakthrough at Saint-Lô in July. The 503d flew area patrols during Operation Market-Garden, the airborne attack on the Netherlands in September. It escorted bombers to, and flew patrols, over the battle area during the German counterattack in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge), December 1944 – January 1945. It provided area patrols during Operation Varsity, the assault across the Rhine in March 1945. The squadron returned to the United States in October and was inactivated on 18 October 1945.