| Unit Name: | 4th Combat Camera Squadron |
| Dates: | 1943–1945; 1996–2015; 2017–present |
| Country: | United States |
| Branch: | U.S. Air Force |
| Type: | Squadron |
| Role: | Combat Photo and Video |
| Command Structure: | U.S. Air Force Reserves |
| Garrison: | Joint Base Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina |
| Motto: | Eyes of the Eagle |
| Equipment Label: | Tail Code |
| Battles: |
European Campaign (1943–1945)
|
| Commander1: | Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Odle |
| Commander1 Label: | Current Commander |
| Commander3: | Chief Master Sergeant Michelle Harris |
| Commander3 Label: | Senior Enlisted Leader |
| Identification Symbol Label: | 4th Combat Camera Squadron Emblem (approved 30 June 1998) |
| Identification Symbol 2: | The term "Sweet Sixteen" refers to the 16mm film used at the time.[1] |
| Identification Symbol 2 Label: | USAAF 4th Combat Camera Unit Emblem (World War II) |
The 4th Combat Camera Squadron (4th CTCS) is a unit of the U.S. Air Force Reserve, 315th Airlift Wing, 315th Operations Group, located at Joint Base Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina.
The 4th CTCS mission is unique and highly specialized. The Airmen of the 4th CTCS are an operational asset designed to assist in shaping the information landscape, and to help senior Department of Defense officials, combatant commanders, and joint leaders understand, visualize, describe, and direct forces by providing high-quality battlefield video and still imagery. Additionally, the 4th CTCS manages the U.S. Air Force Reserve's only fully mission-qualified aircrew photographers, a unique asset providing aerial documentation from a variety of USAF and Department of Defense aircraft. [2] The unit supports wartime operations, worldwide crises, contingencies, joint exercises and humanitarian operations.
The 4th CTCS, "Eyes of the Eagle," has been bestowed the Lineage and Honors history of the First Motion Picture Unit (1st FMPU), a primary film production unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces activated in Culver City, California in July 1942. It was the first military unit made up entirely of professionals from the film industry. Actors such as Clark Gable, William Holden and Alan Ladd, and directors including Richard L. Bare and John Sturges served with the unit. Future president Ronald Reagan, who transferred from the cavalry reserve, was a captain in the unit[3]
On 16 August 1943, six officers and 23 enlisted men were transferred from the 1st FMPU, to create the new 4th Combat Camera Unit (4th CCU) with Capt. William H. Clothier as the first commanding officer.[4]
The 4th CCU was trained by the 1st FMPU at Page Military Academy, a multi-acre site in West Los Angeles. Training included intensive instruction in photography with a variety of motion picture and still cameras, camera maintenance, aerial photography and cinematography under true flight conditions, rigid physical training, ground combat and weapons training.
During World War II, fourteen US Army Air Force Combat Camera Units, including the 4th CCU, provided still and motion picture coverage of the war. Their visual record was used for operational analysis, training, public information, and as a permanent historical record.
In the final months of World War II, a unique team of motion picture professionals, which included members from the 4th CCU, loaded their cameras with color film, and fanned out across Europe to document the final struggle against Hitler's Nazi Germany. From the airways over Germany, to the crossing of the Rhine, the liberation of concentration camps and the fall of Berlin, the 4th CCU far exceeded their orders to photograph the impacts of airpower on the war. The Army Air Forces wanted the footage for a feature-length documentary "Chasing Hitler," that they planned to release to the public that showed how the Army Air Forces were winning the war in Europe. However, by war's end the $1 million price tag was too high and the 100,020 feet of 16mm colored film (a total of 55 hours), was labeled Top Secret and shelved in government archives.[5]
After the war, military photographic units, such as the 4th CCU, inactivated as the United States turned to peacetime duties.
In March 1996, the 4th CCU was re-designated the 4th Combat Camera Squadron (4th CTCS) and activated in the U.S. Air Force Reserve at March Air Force Base on 31 March 1996, as the only combat camera squadron in the Air Force Reserve.
On 1 October 2007, the visual information career fields and functions, including combat camera, were merged with the public affairs function under the single umbrella of the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs. The following year, on 1 October 2008, four combat camera squadrons, including the 4th CTCS, were aligned under the Air Force Public Affairs Agency (AFPAA).
As a result of the challenging fiscal environment, the 4th CTCS was inactivated on 31 July 2015. During the squadron's 19 years, Airmen documented more than 250[6] worldwide combat, humanitarian, expeditionary and training missions with still photography and video, including humanitarian aid in Somalia; Desert Storm/Desert Shield in Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia; peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Kosovo; Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Southwest Asia, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.[7]
In 2017, the Air Force announced the 4th CTCS would again be activated. However, instead of being located at March Air Reserve Base, California, the unit would be co-located with the active duty's 1st Combat Camera Squadron at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina. Aligned under the U.S. Air Force Reserve, 315th Airlift Wing, 315th Operations Group, the 4th CTCS is the only combat camera unit aligned under operations and the only unit of its kind in the Air Force Reserve.[8] On 5 May 2017, U.S. Air Force Major Hamilton Underwood assumed command of the newly activated 4th CTCS during an activation and assumption of command ceremony.[9]
Today, whenever, wherever there is a worldwide crisis or disaster, a contingency or wartime operation or a military exercise involving Air Force, joint or multinational services, the highly skilled professional Airmen of the 4th CTCS are capturing the imagery necessary to support operational needs, combat misinformation and disinformation, and provide invaluable visual historical records. [10]
| Campaign Streamer | Campaign | Dates | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Offensive, Europe | 2 November 1943 – 5 June 1944 | 4th Combat Camera Unit | ||
| Normandy | 6 June 1944 – 24 July 1944 | 4th Combat Camera Unit | ||
| Northern France | 25 July 1944 – 14 September 1944 | 4th Combat Camera Unit | ||
| Rhineland | 15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945 | 4th Combat Camera Unit | ||
| Ardennes-Alsace | 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945 | 4th Combat Camera Unit | ||
| Central Europe | 22 March 1944 – 21 May 1945 | 4th Combat Camera Unit |