Ultramarine blue and Air Force yellow are the Air Force colors. Col. Jason Kirby, 353rd Special Operations Group commander, addresses the audience during an assumption of command ceremony at Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 1, 2019. It is stationed at Kadena Air Base, Japan.. The 353rd Special Operations Wing activated in Apr 1989 in the Philippines to train for unconventional warfare and special operations activities in the Pacific area of operations. The 353rd Special Operations Group is the focal point for all U.S. Air Force special operations activities throughout the U.S. Pacific Command theater. It attacked Japanese airfields and installations in the Philippines, supported ground forces on Luzon, and provided escort for missions to Formosa and the China coast. Aircrews are specially trained in night, low-level flying using night vision goggles. Later, on Luzon, the fighters continued bombing and strafing missions. By the end of October 1945, the group moved to Chitose Air Base, Japan. This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/. The flying personnel of the 3d and 4th Fighter Squadrons, as well as some enlisted members of their engineering sections, were air-transported to Nadzab, New Guinea, where they received the group's new P-51 aircraft. The squadron carried cargo and passengers and air-evacuated wounded soldiers to Australia until it moved to Leyte in mid-January 1945. Blue alludes to the sky, the primary theater of Air Force operations. Aircraft is Lockheed MC-130H Combat Talon II, serial 88-195 from the 1st Special Operations Squadron during an exercise in Bangladesh on 9 June 2006. The separated squadrons flew patrol missions in New Guinea until joining the group on Leyte in January 1945. The 353rd Special Operations Group is the focal point for special operations aviation activities throughout the Pacific. The 353d Special Operations Group is an integral part of the Air Force Special Operations Command and is home-based at Kadena Air Base, Japan. The liaison squadrons received their L-5s in late January 1945, and thereafter evacuated wounded from advanced points, flew courier, search and rescue, and reconnaissance missions, spotted for signal aircraft warning battalions, and dropped supplies to allied and guerrilla forces. Previously: Philippine Department Air Force (1941); Far East Air Force (1941-1942). The 353rd Special Operations Group is the focal point for all air special operations activities throughout the Pacific. Also maintained helicopter air refueling operations and A wing detachment at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, performed combat evaluation of YQU-22A aircraft and associated equipment, December 1968 – August 1969. The group's headquarters, liaison, and airdrome squadrons, as well as its medical dispensary and the ground echelons of the 3d Fighter Squadron (Commando) and 318th Troop Carrier Squadron sailed from the west coast in early November 1944, arriving on Leyte on 1 December 1944. The two units were consolidated in 1985 under the wing designation. 318th Troop Carrier Squadron: 1 May 1944 – 25 March 1946 (detached 1 May – 14 August 1944; ground echelon detached 12 September – 1 November 1944; air echelon detached 12 September 1944 – c. 18 February 1945), 1st Special Operations Squadron: 6 April 1989 – present, 17th Special Operations Squadron: 1 August 1989 – present. Over that 10-day period U.S. forces teamed up to execute the high altitude high opening, high altitude low opening, fast rope, and repel training needed to get its special tactics operators where they need to be quickly, efficiently, and most importantly, ready to respond at … Defense.gov News Photo 110316-F-UI176-556 - Members of the 353rd Special Operations Group off-load and upload new gear at Sendai Airport Japan on March 16 2011. The second predecessor of the group is the 553d Reconnaissance Wing, which conducted electronic surveillance, particularly of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, in Southeast Asia from 1967 to 1970. The 554th Reconnaissance squadron was inactivated with that squadron number then assigned to what was Detachment 1 at Nakon Phanom RTAFB. A Special Operations activities throughout the Pacific Station, Japan 1 December 1992, [ ]. Evacuation of allied prisoners of war from Japan ( MC-130H Combat Talon II ) 2 for.... 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