491st Attack Squadron

The 491st Attack Squadron is an active United States Air Force regular associate unit, stationed at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, where it was activated in April 2019. It is assigned to the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico and operates General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles.

The first predecessor of the squadron was organized during World War I as the 79th Aero Squadron. It deployed to France in 1917, where it was redesignated the 491st Aero Squadron. It served as a construction unit before returning to the United States, where it was demobilized in 1919.

The squadron's second predecessor is the 491st Bombardment Squadron, an Organized Reserve. It was activated in 1925 at Sand Point Airport, Washington, but was only nominally manned. The first two predecessor squadrons were consolidated in 1936, but the consolidated unit was inactivated the following year and was disbanded in May 1942.

The third predecessor of the unit is the 491st Bombardment Squadron (Medium), which was constituted and activated in India during World War II. It participated in combat in the China-Burma-India Theater until the end of the war, where it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation. Following V-J Day, it returned to the United States and was inactivated.

This squadron was activated in the reserve in 1947, but was discontinued when Continental Air Command reduced the number of its units due to reduced defense expenditures in 1949. In 1958, it was consolidated with the earlier squadrons and activated at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas when Strategic Air Command expanded its Boeing B-47 Stratojet wings to four squadrons. The squadron was inactivated at Dyess in 1961. In 2019, it was redesignated and activated with its current mission.