2017, No. 285 Squadron operated a C-130J Flight simulator at Richmond and was responsible for training No. 37 Squadron's aircrew and maintenance personnel; its role and most of its personnel were subsequently transferred to No. 37 Squadron's Training Flight. maintains a detachment of two aircraft at Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates to support operations in the Middle East Region under Operation Accordion. The C-130Js are expected to remain in RAAF service until 2030. History World War II and aftermath No. 37 (Transport) Squadron was formed on 15 July 1943 at RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria, with a staff of two officers and thirteen airmen. Its first commanding officer, Squadron Leader Neville Hemsworth (late of No. 34 Squadron), arrived on 21 July, and its first aircraft, a single-engined Northrop Delta (also formerly of No. 34 Squadron), was delivered on 2 August. The squadron was allocated the first of a batch of ten twin-engined Lockheed C-60 Lodestar transports on 23 August. The Delta was written off following an accident on 30 September. By then the squadron's staff numbered 190, including forty-five officers. It was declared operational on 11 October 1943, undertaking regular courier flights across Australia to destinations including Perth, Western Australia; Darwin and Alice Springs, Northern Territory; Adelaide, South Australia; Maryborough, Queensland; and Launceston, Tasmania. By mid-1944, the squadron had expanded its operations to New Guinea, making courier flights to Merauke initially, and later Wewak, Noemfoor and Hollandia. It transferred to Essendon, Victoria, on 1 September. The unit was now one of eight Australian transport squadrons, all of which operated under the control of RAAF Headquarters, Melbourne. Their primary duty was supporting the Australian military, though they could also be released for urgent requests by General Douglas MacArthur's South West Pacific Area headquarters. A Lodestar crashed and burned on takeoff at Merauke on 26 January 1945 but all aboard escaped injury; it was the only hull loss suffered by the type in Australian service. No. 37 Squadron received its first three Douglas C-47 Dakotas the following month, and by the end of March had a complement of eighteen aircraft: nine Dakotas, seven Lodestars, a Douglas DC-2, and a de Havilland Tiger Moth. The next month it began operating detachments out of Parafield, South Australia, and Morotai in the Dutch East Indies. On 6 July 1945, one of the squadron's Dakotas transported the body of Prime Minister John Curtin