No. 38 Squadron RAAF
No. 38 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force transport and training unit active between 1943 and 2018. It was formed on 15 September 1943 and saw service during World War II transporting supplies and personnel between Australia and the combat zones in New Guinea and Borneo. The squadron was re-equipped with de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou aircraft in 1964 and conducted transport tasks within Australia and its territories. It disbanded on 29 November 2018, its aircraft and roles being transferred to No. 32 Squadron.
About No. 38 Squadron RAAF in brief
No. 38 Squadron was a Royal Australian Air Force transport and training unit active between 1943 and 2018. It was formed on 15 September 1943 and saw service during World War II transporting supplies and personnel between Australia and the combat zones in New Guinea and Borneo. The squadron was re-equipped with de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou aircraft in 1964 and conducted transport tasks within Australia and its territories. It continued to operate Caribou after No. 35 Squadron was disbanded in 2000, though the age of the aircraft increasingly affected its operations. It disbanded on 29 November 2018, its aircraft and roles being transferred to No. 32 Squadron. It is believed to have also had a ground surveillance capability. No. 38 squadron was based at RAAF Base Townsville, Queensland, and was responsible for training RAAF pilots to operate King Airs, and performing light transport and tasks. Its only loss was a Dakota that crashed on a mountain in western New Guinea while flying between Biak and Morotai; the wreckage of this aircraft was not located until 1970. It became part of No. 86 Wing, along with Nos 36, 37 and 37 Squadrons, which also operated Dakotas, and No 86 Squadron, which serviced the British element of the British Occupation Force in Japan. No 38 Squadron relocated to RAAF Station Schofields near Sydney on August 22, 1946, and became one of No 15 Wing’s main responsibilities to conduct thrice-weekly courier flights to Japan.
After the war, the squadron flew into Singapore, Bangkok and locations in Bornea to evacuate released Australian prisoners of war. It also served as part of the Australian-led peacekeeping force in the newly independent nation of East Timor from 1999 until 2001. It served as the RAAF’s operational conversion unit for the type in the Vietnam War, and maintained a detachment in Papua and New Guinea to provide pilots with experience flying in tropical conditions. In the 1980s, detachments were established within Australia to provide search and rescue capabilities and work with Australian Army units. In 2009, No. 38 Squadron re- equipped with eight Beechcraft King Air 350 aircraft. It has since been disbanded, and its aircraft were transferred to Nos 36 and 36 Squadrons. It will be remembered as one of the first Australian squadrons to fly Beech aircraft in the 1970s and 80s, when the squadron was equipped with Lockheed Hudsons, which were used to transport troops and supplies to the Pacific theatre of the Second World War. The last aircraft to be retired from service in 2009 was a Douglas Dakota, which was retired in 2009. It remains the only Australian squadron to have flown Dakota aircraft into the Middle East and Asia during the Cold War. No 38 squadron is now based at RAAF Station Archerfield, near Brisbane, and is responsible for providing training for RAAF personnel to operate the de Haviland Canada Caribou in the 1960s and 1970s.
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This page is based on the article No. 38 Squadron RAAF published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 08, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
