509th Air Refueling Squadron

509th Weapons Squadron
KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to Fairchild AFB
Active	1943–1944; 1948-1965; 1966-1994; 2003 – present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Squadron
Role	Advanced Air Refueling Training
Part of	USAF Weapons School
Garrison/HQ	Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington
Engagements	World War II (American Theater) 1991 Gulf War (Defense of Saudi Arabia; Liberation of Kuwait)
Decorations	Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (with Combat "V" Device) Air Force Outstanding Unit Award (6x) Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm
Insignia
509th Weapons Squadron emblem
509th Air Refueling Squadron emblem (approved 15 September 1957)

The 509th Weapons Squadron is a United States Air Force unit. It is assigned to the USAF Weapons School, stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington.

The 509th Weapons Squadron is a Geographically Separated Unit of the 57th Wing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The mission of the squadron is to provide Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker instructional flying.

The squadron was first activated as the 609th Bombardment Squadron, one of the four original squadrons of the 400th Bombardment Group, at Pyote Army Air Base, Texas, in March 1943. The group was equipped with Consolidated B-24 Liberators and served under Second Air Force as an Operational Training Unit (OTU) at several bases in the southwestern United States until the end of the year. The OTU program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups".

The unit moved to Charleston Army Air Field, South Carolina in late December, where it became part of First Air Force and changed its mission to that of a Replacement Training Unit (RTU). RTUs units were likewise oversize units, but their mission was to train aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters. However, the Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were proving less well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. while the groups and squadrons acting as RTUs were disbanded or inactivated. This resulted in the 609th, along with other units at Charleston, being disbanded in April 1944 and being replaced by the 113th AAF Base Unit (Bombardment (Heavy)), which assumed the squadron's mission, personnel, and equipment.