The 459th was originally established in mid-1942 as the 459th Bombardment Squadron under II Bomber Command as a B-17 Flying Fortress Replacement Training Unit. They operated until March 1944 with the end of Heavy Bomber training.
B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan
The 459th Bombardment Squadron was reorganized as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress Very Heavy bombardment squadron on 1 April 1944. After completion of training in January 1945, they moved to North Field, Guam, in the Mariana Islands of the Central Pacific Area, and were assigned to XXI Bomber Command, Twentieth Air Force. The squadron's mission was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese home islands and the destruction of its war-making capability. The Squadron Flew "shakedown" missions against Japanese targets on Moen Island, Truk, and other points in the Carolines and Marianas. The squadron began missions over Japan on 25 February 1945 with a firebombing mission over northeast Tokyo. The squadron continued to participate in wide-area firebombing attacks, but when the Army Air Forces ran out of incendiary bombs after ten days, the squadron flew conventional strategic bombing missions using high explosive bombs. The squadron continued attacking urban areas with incendiary raids until the end of the war in August 1945, attacking major Japanese cities and causing massive destruction of urbanized areas. They also conducted raids against strategic objectives such as aircraft factories, chemical plants, oil refineries, and other targets in Japan. The squadron flew its last combat missions on 14 August when hostilities ended. Afterwards, the squadron's B 29s carried relief supplies to Allied prisoner of war camps in Japan and Manchuria. The squadron remained in the western Pacific, although largely demobilized in the fall of 1945. Some of the squadron's aircraft were scrapped on Tinian; others were flown to storage depots in the United States. The squadron was inactive from the end of 1945 until 1949.
United States Air Force
During the Vietnam War the squadron was reactivated at Cam Ranh Air Base, South Vietnam, in 1966. It provided intra-theatre airlift services in Vietnam, including air-land and airdrop assault missions from 1966 to 1970. The unit was inactivated as part of the drawdown of United States forces. The squadron conducted airlifts of key Department of Defense personnel from April 1975 to March 1978, aeromedical airlifts from March 1978 to November 1991, and operational support airlifts since December 1991.
Operations and decorations
Combat Operations: Combat in Western Pacific, c. 12 April – 14 August 1945. Intra-theatre airlift in Southeast Asia, January 1967 – May 1970
Campaigns: World War II: Air Offensive, Japan; Western Pacific. Vietnam: Vietnam Air Offensive; Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase II; Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase III; Vietnam Air/Ground; Vietnam Air Offensive, Phase IV; TET 69/Counteroffensive; Vietnam Summer-Fall, 1969; Vietnam Winter-Spring, 1970; Sanctuary Counteroffensive
