606th Air Commando Squadron
| 606th Air Commando Squadron | |||
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| Wing: 56th Air Commando Wing | |||
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| Theater Southeast Asia | |||
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Many, many sources indicated that the 606th Air Commando Squadron fielded A-26A Invaders prior to the formation of the 609th Air Commando Squadron. Technically, this is not correct. The 606th Air Commando Squadron was an elite hunter-killer unit that operated out of Nakhon Phanom Air Base while the A-26As first arrived in 1966. However, the A-26As assigned to the base were "attached" to the 606th, not assigned. The difference is that the 606th provided logistical and operational support to the unit, including fuel, armorers, ground crew, etc, the planes and their crews were not directly under the command of the 606th. But the 606th was responsible for reporting the plane's Inventory Status, which is why the planes list the 606th on the Aerospace Inventory Reports as the reporting unit. In truth, the planes are all still assigned to the 603rd Air Commando Squadron, 1st Air Commando Wing at Hurlburt Field, FL. This is the reason why planes in Thailand first used the tail code "IF" in white letters - that letter code denotes the 603rd ACS and is also seen later in 1969 on planes coming from Hulrburt to Davis-Monthan. We see this same type of logistical attachment occur during WWII with the Project Squadron being attached to the 386th Bombardment Group.
In everyday practical operations these first A-26As that arrived in Thailand flew side-by-side with the aircrews of the 606th ACS, often flying in coordinated hunter-killer missions with them. However, they were officially "603rd ACS - Detachment 1", part of "Operation Big Eagle." As such, any mentions of A-26As and the 606th ACS should really be the 603-1 ACS.
Planes
The 606th Air Commando Squadron did not field any A-26A Invaders Directly. They had T-28 Trojans and other support and observation plane.