The unit was first activated as the 502nd Tactical Control Group in December 1945. In 1950 it was rushed to Korea where it fought in the Korean War, earning two Presidential Unit Citations for its actions. It remained under Far East Air Forces after the war until it was inactivated in October 1957.
History
At the beginning of the Korean War, the United States Air Force's only tactical control group was the 502d at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. To respond, Fifth Air Force organized the 6132d Tactical Air Control Squadron, which established a full-scale Tactical Air Control Center at Taegu Air Base, South Korea on 23 July 1950.
Less than three months later, the 502nd and its subordinate squadrons moved from Pope to Korea. Elements left behind at Pope by the 502d were used to form the 507th Tactical Control Group there.[2] In October 1950 the 502d replaced the 6132nd TCS in the mission of directing tactical air operations in Korea. Through its 605th Tactical Control Squadron, the group operated the Tactical Air Control Center and worked with the United States Army in a Joint Operations Center. The group's two aircraft control and warning squadrons operated Tactical Air Direction Centers, which used stationary and mobile radar and communications equipment to guide aircraft on close air support missions.[1] In November a third aircraft control and warning squadron was activated to reinforce the group.
The group also deployed Tactical Air Control Parties, which accompanied ground units to communicate with strike aircraft. These small detachments followed advancing U.S. and allied troops into North Korea in October and November 1950, but the Chinese Communist offensive soon overran several of them. The 502d TCG's headquarters and the Tactical Air Control Center, which had been operating from Seoul in November and part of December, were forced to return to Taegu.[1]
During the spring and summer of 1951, the 502d directed night bombing of enemy targets, including troop concentrations, supply dumps, and motor convoys. As United Nations ground forces drove the enemy back across the 38th Parallel, the group returned to Seoul in June, along with the Tactical Air Control Center and the Joint Operations Center returned to Seoul. In October, the 502nd set up a communications station 100 miles behind enemy lines on Cho-do Island, three miles off the North Korean coast.[note 1] From this location the detachment guided fighter aircraft against enemy airplanes in MiG Alley, bombers against strategic targets along the Yalu River, and search and rescue aircraft toward survivors who had ditched at sea.
On 6 June 1952, the 502nd was instrumental in the destruction of nine Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 aircraft by directing North American F-86 Sabres to maneuver into a position from which they could advantageously attack the MiGs. In addition, during 1952, Detachment 2 of the 608th Squadron was credited with the first (and possibly the only) confirmed kill of a multi-engine enemy bomber. The following month, the 502nd guided warplanes in attacks on enemy troop formations that blunted communist offensives until the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed in July 1953.[1]
Pacific Air Forces Air Mobility Operations Center: 27 October 2000 – 6 October 2006
Squadrons
26th Air and Space Intelligence Squadron: 27 October 2000 – 6 October 2006
56th Air and Space Plans Squadron: 27 October 2000 – 6 October 2006
56th Air and Space Operations Squadron: 27 October 2000 – 6 October 2006
502d Air Operations Squadron: 27 October 2000 – 6 October 2006
605th Tactical Control Squadron: 15 December 1945 – 1 October 1957
606th Tactical Control Squadron (later 605th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron), 15 December 1945 – 1 October 1957 (attached to Tactical Air Force, Provisional August 1949 – August 1950, Fourteenth Air Force, August 1950 – September 1950: Far East Air Forces, September 1950 – October 1950)
607th Tactical Control Squadron (later 605th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron): 15 December 1945 – 1 October 1957
608th Aircraft Control Squadron (later 608th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, 608th Tactical Control Squadron): 5 December 1945 – 28 March 1949, 2 November 1951 – 1 October 1957[1]
6132d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron: 9 October 1950 – 2 November 1951[1]
1st SHORAN Beacon Unit (later 1st SHORAN Beacon Squadron): attached 27 September – 1 December 1950 and 6 September 1952– unknown[1]
^The station was operated by Detachment 2, 608th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. Also stationed on the island were rescue helicopters and a crash boat from the 22nd Crash Rescue Boat Squadron. Endicott, p. 84.
Y'Blood, William T (2002). Down in the Weeds: Close Air Support in Korea(PDF) (Report). The U.S. Air Force in Korea. AIR FORCE Historical Studies Office (Air Force Histories and Museum Program). Archived from the original(PDF) on 27 November 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2013. Ground-based radar was first tried on November 28, when a detachment of the 3903d Radar Bomb Scoring Squadron used truck-mounted AN/MPQ-2 radars to guide B–26s against enemy. … The 502d Tactical Control Group (TCG) was given the task of developing procedures and equipment for this mission. Initially, radio beacons placed along the front lines were used, but these did not permit sufficiently precise bombing parameters. In January 1951, the group assumed operational control of the 3903d's three MPQ-2 radar detachments. Nine months later the 502d assumed complete control of the detachments, which allowed the 3903d Squadron to return to the United States. The MPQ-2 detachments then became full-scale tactical air-direction posts called Tadpoles. Code-named Hillbilly, Beverage, and Chestnut, they were positioned about ten miles behind the front lines near the command posts of the I, IX, and X Corps. (quoted by http://www.607acw.org/tadpoles.htmlArchived 2012-02-04 at the Wayback Machine )
