2nd Airlift Squadron

The 2nd Airlift Squadron is an inactive airlift of the United States Air Force squadron that was last stationed at Pope Army Airfield, North Carolina, where it operated Lockheed C 130 Hercules aircraft. The squadron was assigned to the 43rd Airlift Group of Air Mobility Command.

Provide the Department of Defense with highly trained, highly motivated, combat ready aircrews who execute the best tactical airlift/airdrop operations in the United States Air Force.

Prior to the early 1930s, transport aircraft in the Air Corps had been assigned to air depots and to service squadrons, although provisional transport squadrons had been formed for special projects. By 1932 Major Hugh J. Kerr, Chief of the Field Service Section of the Materiel Division, proposed the formation of a transport squadron at each air depot to act as a cadre for the transport wing the Air Corps proposed to support a field army in the event of mobilization. Major General Benjamin Foulois approved the formation of four provisional squadrons in November 1932. The 2nd Provisional Transport Squadron was constituted in October 1933. By March 1934, it had become a Regular Army Inactive unit at Norton Field, Ohio, with reserve officers assigned. In the spring of 1935, these squadrons, including the 2nd Transport Squadron at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania, were made regular units and activated with Bellanca C 27 Airbus aircraft assigned. With enlisted men as pilots, the squadron hauled engines, parts, and other equipment to airfields in their assigned depot area, returned items to the depot, and transferred materiel between depots. They also furnished transportation for maneuvers. The rapid transport of supplies by the squadrons permitted the Air Corps to maintain low levels of materiel at its airfields, relying on replenishment from depot stocks only when needed.