Qualla: Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles

Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Few military units have reinvented themselves as completely as the 851st. Activated in January 1941 as the 78th Bombardment Squadron, it flew Douglas A-20 Havocs out of Savannah, Georgia, before the United States had even entered the war. By the time it was inactivated for the last time in March 1965, it had hunted submarines in the Caribbean, bombed targets across Nazi Germany, and stood guard over nine Titan I intercontinental ballistic missiles buried in silos beneath the rolling hills north of Sacramento. The unit's story is the story of American air power itself -- improvised, reorganized, and perpetually adapting to threats that kept changing shape.

Image: Public domain

Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles: Submarine Hunters Over Warm Water

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. After Pearl Harbor, the squadron pivoted from training to action. German U-boats were devastating Allied shipping along the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico, and the Army Air Forces scrambled every available aircraft into the antisubmarine role. The 78th traded its lig...

Image: Public domain

Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles: From Idaho to England

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bwmoll3, CC BY-SA 3.0. Reassigned and redesignated again -- now the 851st Bombardment Squadron -- the unit moved to Mountain Home Army Air Field in Idaho, where it formed the nucleus of the new 490th Bombardment Group. The crews trained on Consolidated B-24 Liberators through the winter of 1943-44, pre...

Image: Bwmoll3 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles: Cold War Resurrection

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bwmoll3, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fifteen years of silence followed. Then, in August 1960, the unit was redesignated the 851st Strategic Missile Squadron and assigned to the 456th Strategic Aerospace Wing at Beale Air Force Base, California. The mission could not have been more different: nuclear deterrence with ...

Image: Bwmoll3 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles: Alert Status and Accidents

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bwmoll3, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 851st was the last Titan I squadron in the Air Force to achieve full alert status, but it became the first to pass an Operational Readiness Inspection -- a point of pride for the crews who maintained and guarded these weapons. The work was dangerous. On May 24, 1962, during a...

Image: Bwmoll3 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Four Names, Three Wars, Nine Missiles: Obsolete Before Its Time

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bwmoll3, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the early 1960s, the Titan I was already being overtaken by newer technology. The Minuteman missile used solid fuel, could be launched directly from its silo, and was ready in seconds rather than minutes. On November 19, 1964, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara announced the ph...

Image: Bwmoll3 | CC BY-SA 3.0