724th Strategic Missile Squadron

724th Strategic Missile Squadron
3 HGM-25A Titan I missiles on alert at Site A, Watkins, Colorado, about 1962
Active	1943–1965
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Bombardment/Missile Launch

The 724th Strategic Missile Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 451st Strategic Missile Wing, stationed at Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado.

It was inactivated on 25 June 1965.

Activated as a B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment squadron in May 1943, it was assigned to II Bomber Command for training. It trained primarily in the US midwest. The squadron received deployment orders for the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) in November 1943.

It was deployed to southern Italy in January 1944 and entered combat in January 1944, being assigned to the Fifteenth Air Force. It took part in air echelon training in Algeria for several weeks before joining the remainder of the group in Italy. The unit was engaged in very long range strategic bombing missions to enemy military, industrial and transportation targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. It attacked such targets as oil refineries, marshalling yards, aircraft factories, bridges and airfields in Italy, France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and Greece.

The squadron also flew support and interdictory missions. It helped to prepare the way for and participated in the invasion of southern France in August 1944. It transported supplies to troops in Italy during September 1944 and supported the final advances of Allied armies in northern Italy in April 1945.

The squadron returned to the US in June 1945, forming at Dow Field, Maine. Unit personnel were demobilized throughout the summer of 1945. The squadron was inactivated on 26 September 1945.

It was reactivated in 1961 as a Titan I ICBM launch squadron, activated by redesignation of the 848th Strategic Missile Squadron. The squadron was deployed in a 3x3 configuration, which meant a total of nine missiles were divided into three bases. Each base had three ICBMs ready to launch at any given time.