under budget pressures, prepared to transfer Blytheville to Strategic Air Command (SAC). Strategic bomber operations In 1962, in order to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records, SAC received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its Major Command controlled strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate Air Force controlled units, which could carry a lineage and history. As a result, the 461st Bombardment Wing replaced the 4128th Strategic Wing at Amarillo Air Force Base, Texas. As part of this organizational action, the squadron took over the mission, personnel and equipment of the 718th Bombardment Squadron, which was simultaneously inactivated. SAC wings were organized under the dual deputy system, so the squadron was assigned directly to the 461st Wing, rather than to a group. One half of the squadron's Boeing B-52 Stratofortress aircraft were maintained on fifteen minute alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. The squadron continued the mission of strategic bombardment training. It participated in exercises and operational readiness inspections at the direction of SAC. In January 1967, the squadron deployed its aircraft and crews to Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, where it carried out missions in Southeast Asia as part of a provisional bombardment wing participating in Operation Arc Light. The squadron's planes and personnel returned to Amarillo in July, where they returned to nuclear alert. However, "[i]n December 1965, a few months after the first B-52Bs started leaving the operational inventory, Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense [announced] another phaseout program that would further reduce SAC’s bomber force. Basically, this program called for the mid-1971 retirement of all B-52Cs and of several subsequent B-52 models." In addition, in January 1968, announcement was made that Amarillo would close at the end of the year. The squadron's last operational B-52 was transferred to another unit on 21 January 1968, and the squadron inactivated on 25 March. Lineage Constituted as the 764th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) on 19 May 1943 Activated on 1 July 1943 Redesignated 764th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy c. 1944 Inactivated on 28 August 1945 Redesignated the 764th Bombardment Squadron, Light on 11 December 1953 Activated on 23 December 1953 Redesignated 764th Bombardment Squadron, Tactical on 1 October 1955 Inactivated on 8 January 1958 Redesignated 764th Bombardment Squadron, Heavy and activated on 15 November 1962 (not organized) Organized on