488th Bombardment Squadron

Established as a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber squadron in mid-1942, trained by Third Air Force in the southeastern United States. Deployed to IX Bomber Command in Egypt initially in March 1943 via Air Transport Command South Atlantic Route through Caribbean, Brazil, Liberia, Central Africa and Sudan, then reassigned to Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO), and to XII Bomber Command in Tunisia. Supported Allied ground forces in Tunisian Campaign; participated in Invasions of Sicily and Italy during 1943, supporting Allied ground forces with tactical bombing of enemy targets. Participated in liberation of Corsica during the spring of 1944, then returned to Italy engaging in attacks on enemy ground forces and targets in the Po Valley during the spring of 1945.

This was the squadron Joseph Heller flew in as a bombardier, his experiences leading him to write the famous anti-war novel, Catch-22.

Personnel demobilized in Italy during summer of 1945; squadron returned to the United States, being prepared for deployment to Pacific Theater for use as a tactical bomb squadron in programmed Invasion of Japan. Japanese capitulation led to squadron's inactivation in November 1945.

Activated as an A-26 Invader squadron in the postwar Air Force reserves in 1947; inactivated in 1949 due to budget reductions.

Reactivated in October 1952 as a Strategic Air Command B-47 Stratojet squadron. Initially equipped with prototypes of the Boeing RB-47B Stratojet (YRB-47) to perform long-range photo-reconnaissance with a flight of B-29 Superfortress bombers assigned. In November 1953 began to receive production B-47E medium bomber aircraft; prototype reconnaissance aircraft already received exchanged for medium bomber versions. Participated in SAC REFLEX deployments to Europe and North Africa throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1963 with the phaseout of the B-47 the aircraft sent to storage at Davis–Monthan and inactivated.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

• Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1982) [1969]. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-405-12194-6. LCCN 70605402. OCLC 72556.

• Joseph Heller find a grave