Organization and initial operations

Boeing B-17C

The first predecessor of the squadron was initially activated at Fort Douglas, Utah in January 1941 as the 12th Reconnaissance Squadron. While it was assigned to a higher echelon, it was attached to the 39th Bombardment Group.^[1] Since a reorganization of General Headquarters Air Force in September 1936, each bombardment group of the Army Air Forces (AAF) had an attached reconnaissance squadron, which operated the same aircraft as that group's assigned bombardment squadrons.^[2] That arrangement continued for units like the 39th that were designated as medium and heavy bombardment units.^[3] The squadron flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, although as it was organizing, it also flew some North American B-25 Mitchells.^[1] While stationed at Fort Douglas, the squadron conducted flight operations from Salt Lake City Municipal Airport. In July 1941, the squadron moved with the 39th Group to Geiger Field, Washington.^[1][4]

Consolidated B-24E

Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the squadron flew antisubmarine patrols off the Pacific Coast until February 1942, when it moved to Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona. At Davis-Monthan, it converted to Consolidated B-24 Liberators. In the spring of 1942 the AAF recognized there was little difference in the equipment and mission of the attached reconnaissance squadrons from that of the parent group's assigned bombardment squadrons. As a result, the squadron was redesignated the 402d Bombardment Squadron in April 1942 and was assigned, not attached, to the 39th Group. With its Liberators, the squadron became an Operational Training Unit (OTU).^[1] The OTU program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups"^[5] It then assumed responsibility for their training and oversaw their expansion with graduates of Army Air Forces Training Command schools to become effective combat units.^[6][7] The OTU program was patterned after the unit training system of the Royal Air Force. Phase I training concentrated on individual training in crewmember specialties. Phase II training emphasized the coordination for the crew to act as a team. The final phase concentrated on operation as a unit.^[8]

By late 1943 most of the AAF's units had been activated and almost three quarters of them had deployed overseas. With the exception of special programs, like forming Boeing B-29 Superfortress units, training “fillers” for existing units became more important than unit training.^[9] The squadron mission changed to that of a Replacement Training Unit (RTU).^[1] The RTU was also an oversized unit, but its mission was to train individual pilots or aircrews.^[5]

However, the AAF was finding that standard military units like the 402nd, whose manning was based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving not well adapted to the training mission, even more so to the replacement mission. Accordingly, the AAF adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.^[10] Most of the OTUs and RTUs were inactivated or disbanded and training activities given to these base units.^[11] The 39th Group and its components were inactivated, and along with supporting units at Davis-Monthan, replaced by the 233rd AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training School, Bombardment, Heavy).^{[1][4][12][13]}

B-29 operations and combat

The 39th Group and its squadrons, including the 402nd, were activated the same day at Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas as B-29 Superfortress units. However, before the squadron could become fully manned and equipped, the AAF reorganized its B-29 units. Although this reorganization increased the number of aircraft assigned to each squadron and to the group, it reduced the number of squadrons in the group from four to three. The squadron was inactivated in this reorganization on 10 May, and its crews and airplanes were distributed to the other three squadrons of the 39th Group.^[1][14]

A few weeks later, on 1 June 1944, the squadron was activated once again at Davis-Monthan Field as a component of the newly organized 502d Bombardment Group. Five days later, the squadron moved to Dalhart Army Air Field, Texas to begin training with the B-29. The squadron trained at Dalhart and at Grand Island Army Air Field, Nebraska until 7 April 1945, when it departed for the Pacific.^[1][15]

The squadron arrived at its combat station, Northwest Field, Guam on 12 May 1945. It flew its first combat mission on 30 June, an attack on Rota. It carried out attacks on Truk during July. It flew its first mission against the Japanese Home Islands on 15 July, against the oil refinery at Kudamatsu,^[16] and until the end of the war, concentrated on attacks on the Japanese petroleum industry. It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for August 1945 attacks on the coal liquefaction plant at Ube, a tank farm at Amagasaki and the Nippon Oil refinery at Tsuchizaki. After the war it participated in show of force missions and evacuated prisoners of war. The squadron remained on Guam until it was inactivated on 15 April 1946.^[1][15]