543rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group
543rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group
Main page
1071307

543rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group

logo
Community Hub0 subscribers
What are your thoughts?
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
543rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group

The 543d Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group is an intelligence unit of the United States Air Force. It is located at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. It has been located there since 1997, when it was activated as the 543d Intelligence Group. It focuses on cryptography operations and signals intelligence.

The group's earliest predecessor was established in June 1942 as the 3d Photographic Group. After training in the United States, the group deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, where it performed reconnaissance missions, primarily for Twelfth Air Force, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation for its support of Operation Dragoon. After the surrender of Germany, the group was inactivated in Italy in September 1945.

The second ancestor of the group is the 543d Tactical Support Group, a United States Air Force unit that fought in the Korean War under Fifth Air Force. The 543d was established in September 1950 to control tactical reconnaissance units operating in Korea. In February 1951, the group was inactivated and replaced by the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing and its subordinate units transferred or replaced by units of the 67th Wing.

The 543rd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group is a force provider for national cryptologic operations and serves as Sixteenth Air Force's primary service cryptologic component for the Department of Homeland Security. The group provides air signals intelligence analysts for the National Security Agency as well as Air Force national and tactical intelligence integration for Air Forces Southern and Air Forces Northern's air operations centers. The group also supports cryptologic missions within North American Air Defense Command and United States Southern Command.

The group was first activated in June 1942 as the 3d Photographic Group and assigned directly to Headquarters, Army Air Forces. The group's initial components were the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadrons. It trained at Peterson Field, Colorado until September 1942, when it moved (less its 14th Squadron and B and C Flights of the 15th) to England, where it flew missions with Eighth Air Force as it prepared for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.

In December 1942, the group moved to North Africa along with its 12th and 15th Squadrons. The 15th's A Flight preceded other group elements, arriving at Tafaroui, Algeria on 18 November, ten days after the initial Torch landings. Although the 13th Photographic Squadron continued to be assigned to the 3d Group until July 1943, the squadron remained in England where it was attached to elements of Eighth Air Force.

The group provided photographic intelligence that assisted the campaign for Tunisia, Operation Corkscrew, the neutralization of Pantelleria, the Sardinia campaign, and Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. It reconnoitered airfields, roads, marshalling yards and harbors both before and after Operation Avalanche, the Allied landings at Salerno. It provided coverage for the Battle of Anzio early in 1944 and continued to support the United States Fifth Army in its drive through Italy by determining troop movements, gun positions, and terrain. In Italy, the 23d Photographic Squadron filled out the group again. The squadron was attached to the 3d Group several times in 1943 and 1944, before finally being assigned in November 1944.

Flying from Corsica, the 3d flew reconnaissance missions supporting Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in August 1944. The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission on 28 August 1944 when it provided photographic intelligence that assisted the rapid advance of Allied ground forces. The group also mapped areas in France and the Balkans. The group was inactivated in Italy in September 1945 and disbanded in 1947.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.