54th Helicopter Squadron


The 54th Helicopter Squadron is a unit of the United States Air Force based at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. It is currently part of the 582d Helicopter Group, headquartered at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Since it was first created, it has served a search and rescue and transport function at Air Force bases in three locations in North America. In its most recent format, it has been stationed at Minot Air Force Base.

History

Search and rescue

The squadron was first activated in November 1952 as the 54th Air Rescue Squadron at Goose Bay Airport, Labrador, when Air Rescue Service expanded its squadrons into groups. At Goose, the new squadron assumed the personnel, equipment and mission of Flight D, 6th Air Rescue Squadron, which was simultaneously discontinued. The squadron performed search and rescue missions in Labrador and Greenland and the surrounding waters. The squadron was briefly inactivated in June 1960, but was restored to active duty at Goose the following June.
The squadron was renamed the 54th Recovery Squadron in July 1965 to reflect its additional mission of recovering capsules ejected by various reconnaissance platforms. Little more than six months later, along with all rescue and recovery units, it was renamed the 54th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron. In 1967, the squadron moved to Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, where it continued the same mission until inactivating in June 1974.

Missile support

The squadron was reactivated in 1993 as the 54th Rescue Flight, It provided security for the 91st Missile Wing's missile complex. It also transported security forces and equipment throughout the wing's missile fields and supported medical evacuation and rescue searches.

Lineage

  • Constituted as the 54th Air Rescue Squadron on 17 October 1952
  • Redesignated 54th Air Recovery Squadron on 1 July 1965
  • Redesignated 54th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron on 8 January 1966
  • Redesignated 54th Rescue Flight
  • Redesignated 54th Helicopter Flight on 1 May 1998
  • Redesignated 54th Helicopter Squadron on 8 October 2005

Assignments

Stations

Aircraft