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- The 53d Airlift Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit, last part of the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas. It operated Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft for airlift and airdrop operations. The squadron was first activated in June 1942 as the 53d Troop Carrier Squadron. After training in the United States, it deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it participated in the airborne assault on Sicily, for which it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC). It moved to England, where it participated in the D Day airborne assault, for which it earned a second DUC, and in Operation Market Garden, the attempt to secure a bridgehead across the Rhine River in the Netherlands. Following V-E Day, it participated in the movement of American troops back to the United States before inactivating in July 1945. The squadron was reactivated in France in 1946, moving to Germany, where it participated in the Berlin Airlift. It returned to the United States in 1950, but soon deployed to Japan, where it provided airlift during the Korean War. The squadron was inactivated in 1966, but reactivated as the 53d Military Airlift Squadron in 1972. Except for a brief period of inactivation in 1993, it has been a strategic airlift unit since then. (en)
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