The 351st Air Refueling Squadron (351st ARS) is part of the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England. Since 1992, it has operated the Boeing KC-135R/T Stratotanker aircraft conducting primarily aerial refueling but also airlift and aeromedical evacuation missions.
It previously flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II and the Boeing B-47E Stratojet between 1956 and 1966 as the 351st Bombardment Squadron.
History
World War II
First established as the 351st Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 1 June 1942, the squadron flew the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress from November 1942, initially as part of the Third Air Force in the southeast, before transferring to the Second Air Force in the Pacific Northwest. The 351st BS operated as an Operational Training Unit in the Midwest until being deployed to the European Theater of Operations, being assigned to VIII Bomber Command at RAF Thorpe Abbotts, England, on 9 June 1943.
Engaged in strategic bombardment operations over Occupied Europe and Germany, sustaining very heavy losses of personnel and aircraft while conducting many unescorted missions over enemy territory attacking airfields, industries, naval facilities and transportation hubs. During the summer of 1944, aircrews bombed enemy positions at Saint-Lô, followed by similar campaigns at Brest, France in August and September. In October 1944, the squadron attacked enemy and ground defenses in the allied drive on the Siegfried Line, then bombed marshaling yards, German occupied villages, and communication targets in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge from December 1944 to January 1945. Attacked enemy targets in Germany during the spring of 1945, ending combat operations with the German Capitulation in May 1945.
Remained in Europe as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe occupation forces, dropping food to the people in the west of the Netherlands, and in June transported French Allied former prisoners of war from Austria to France. Demobilizing in England, in December 1945 the squadron inactivated as a paper unit.
Air Force Reserve
Activated in the reserves in 1947 at Miami Army Air Field, Florida. Unclear whether or not the unit was manned or equipped; inactivated in 1949 due to budget restrictions.
Strategic Air Command bombardment operations
The unit was reactivated under Strategic Air Command on 1 January 1956 as the 351st Bombardment Squadron, Medium. Based at Portsmouth Air Force Base (later Pease AFB), New Hampshire, the 351st BS (M) were equipped with 15 new, swept wing Boeing B-47E Stratojets which were designed to carry nuclear weapons and to penetrate Soviet air defenses. The 351st BS (M) deployed to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, from 29 December 1957 to 1 April 1958.
The squadron flew the B-47 for about a decade when by the mid-1960s it had become obsolete and vulnerable to new Soviet air defenses. The squadron began to send its Stratojets to AMARC at Davis–Monthan AFB, Arizona, for retirement in 1965, and the unit was inactivated on 25 June 1966, one of the last B-47 Squadrons.
Air refueling in Europe
The unit was reactivated at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, in the United Kingdom on 31 March 1992 as the 351st Air Refueling Squadron, operating the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker. The first KC-135R to arrive at Mildenhall for the 351st ARS was 58-0100 on 19 May 1992 from Loring Air Force Base, Maine. Nine KC-135Rs had arrived by September 1992. Following their reactivation, the 351st ARS went on to support Operations Provide Comfort, Restore Hope and Northern Watch.
In April 1996, the 351st ARS contributed to Operation Assured Response, deploying three KC-135s to Dakar-Yoff International Airport, Senegal, to help support the evacuation of U.S. citizens and third country nationals from Liberia after fighting flared up in Monrovia during the First Liberian Civil War.
In March 1998, the 351st ARS participated in Exercise Strong Resolve 98 at Sola Air Station, Norway. After the European Tanker Task Force (ETTF) was ended on 28 November 1998, the number of KC-135s assigned to the 351st ARS was increased to 15 tankers. In 1999, the squadron supported Operation Allied Force, NATO intervention during the Kosovo War, as the 351st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron (351st EARS).
In October 2001, the 351st EARS deployed 12 tankers: four to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey; another four to Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany; and a final four to Souda Bay, Greece, in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). On 23 November 2001, KC-135s deployed to Burgas Airport in Bulgaria, from where they conducted OEF missions.