13th Aero Squadron
WW1 division of the United States Army
The 13th Aero Squadron was a United States Army Air Service unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I.
The squadron was assigned as a Day Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron as part of the 2d Pursuit Group, First United States Army. Its mission was to engage and clear enemy aircraft from the skies and provide escort to reconnaissance and bombardment squadrons over enemy territory. It also attacked enemy observation balloons, and perform close air support and tactical bombing attacks of enemy forces along the front lines. After the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron returned to the United States in March 1919 and demobilized.
On 16 October 1936 the squadron was re-constituted, and consolidated with the United States Army Air Corps 13th Attack Squadron. Today, the current United States Air Force unit which holds its lineage and history is the 13th Bomb Squadron, assigned to the 509th Operations Group, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.
History
Origins
The 13th Aero Squadron was organised at Kelly Field, Texas on 14 June 1917. After a short period of organization, which included "snake-chasing and cactus-cutting", the squadron was moved to Wilbur Wright Field, Ohio in the beginning of July where its aviation cadets began flight training on the Curtiss JN-4 Jenny trainer. Training in Ohio lasted until 1 November when it received orders for overseas duty. The squadron proceeded to the Aviation Concentration Center, Garden City, New York, where it awaited transport to Europe.
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This entry incorporates text from “13th Aero 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.