139th Airlift Squadron
military unit
The 139th Airlift Squadron is a unit of the New York Air National Guard 109th Airlift Wing Stationed at Stratton Air National Guard Base, Schenectady, New York. The 139th is equipped with the specialized ski-equipped LC-130H Hercules for polar operations.
History
World War II
The 303rd Fighter Squadron was activated at Morris Field, North Carolina, receiving its initial cadre from the 20th Fighter Group, initially operated as an operational training squadron (OTU), flying P-39 Airacobras and P-43 Lancers with a mission to train newly graduated pilots from Training Command in single-engine fighter aircraft. Beginning in mid-1943 switched to replacement training (RTU) of pilots. Equipment upgraded to P-47 Thunderbolts and, lastly, P-40 Warhawks. Was disbanded in May 1944 with reorganization of training units, personnel and equipment absorbed by "Squadron B", 336th AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Fighter).
New York Air National Guard
The 303d Fighter Squadron was reconstituted and redesignated the 139th Fighter Squadron, and was allotted to the National Guard on 24 May 1946. It was organized at Schenectady County Airport, Schenectady, New York, and was extended federal recognition on 18 October 1948. The 139th Fighter Squadron was equipped with P-47D Thunderbolts and was initially assigned to the New York ANG 52d Fighter Wing, later to the 107th Fighter Group in November 1948.
The mission of the 139th Fighter Squadron was the air defense of eastern and northern New York.
The public source identifies “139th Airlift Squadron” as military unit. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around 139th, Airlift and Squadron.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4549307. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1944, 1946 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “139th Airlift Squadron” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.