The 42d Aerial Port Squadron is an Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) unit whose lineage traces back more than six decades, reflecting the broader evolution of aerial port and airlift support functions within the reserve component.
The unit's story began on 28 January 1964, when it was constituted as the 942d Aerial Port Flight and activated, formally organizing in the Air Force Reserve on 15 February 1964. During this first chapter, the flight was assigned to the 942d Troop Carrier Group, later redesignated the Air Transport and then Military Airlift Group, and it was stationed at March Air Force Base, California. This original iteration of the unit was short-lived in operational terms, as it was inactivated on 1 January 1972, a period that saw many reserve support units downsized or restructured following the drawdown from Vietnam.
The unit lay dormant for roughly a decade before being revived. On 28 December 1981, it was redesignated the 42d Mobile Aerial Port Squadron, and it returned to active status in the Reserve on 1 October 1982. With this reactivation came a new home station, Westover Air Force Base (later Air Reserve Base) in Massachusetts, where the squadron has remained ever since. It was placed under the 439th Tactical Airlift Wing, an assignment lineage that continued through the wing's later redesignations as the Military Airlift Wing and Airlift Wing, and subsequently under the 439th Operations Group beginning 1 August 1992, and the 439th Mission Support Group from 1 October 2002.
The squadron reached its current name on 1 October 1987, when it was redesignated simply the 42d Aerial Port Squadron. Over the following decades, the unit earned recognition for its performance, receiving five Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards between 1989 and 2009. Today, based at Westover, the squadron continues its mission of processing passengers and cargo in support of Air Force Reserve airlift operations.
