The 3rd Flying Training Squadron is part of the 71st Operations Group under the 71st Flying Training Wing. It operates the T-1A Jayhawk aircraft conducting advanced phase tanker/transport flight training. The 3rd FTS is the third-oldest squadron in the Air Force, with over 95 years of service to the nation, its origins date to the organization of the 3rd Aero Squadron on 1 November 1916 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Deployed to the Philippines after World War I, during the 1941-1942 Battle of the Philippines, it was wiped out, with some of its personnel being forced by the Japanese to endure the Bataan Death March. It was not re-activated until 1973. Mission To qualify warriors with the skills and attitude necessary to become the world's best combat airlift and tanker pilots. History Origins The 3rd Flying Training Squadron dates to the organization of the 3rd Aero Squadron on 1 November 1916 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Most of the officers and men of the Squadron were transferred from the Aviation School at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, where, at the time, all Army aviators were trained. There, it replaced the 1st Aero Squadron, whose members were sent to Columbus Airfield, New Mexico as part of the Punitive expedition against Pancho Villa. There, the squadron may have operated some Curtiss JN-3s and possibly some Curtiss N-8s, preparing them to be sent south to Columbus. In December 1916, Congress authorized the lease of a 700-acre tract of land seven miles south of San Antonio, Texas for a new airfield to accommodate the rapidly expanding Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. By March 1917, men from the 3rd Aero Squadron were hard at work clearing the cotton plants from the land and laying foundations for hangars and mess halls at what would become Kelly Field. On 5 April 1917, one day before the United States entered World War I, four Curtiss JN-4 "Jennies" landed at the new field. On 29 August 1917 the 3rd Aero Squadron left Kelly Field for Fort Sill, Oklahoma with 12 Curtiss R4 airplanes under the command of a Captain Weir to establish a new training airfield. The squadron was assigned to Henry Post Field (named after 2nd Lt. Henry B. Post who was killed in a plane crash in California in 1914). It was re-designated as Squadron A, Henry Post Field, Oklahoma. on 22 July 1918. At Post