Commander Air Force's mid-rank officers' ranks are modelled on those of the Royal Navy, the term wing commander is used as a rank, and this is the equivalent of a lieutenant colonel in the army or a commander in the navy. The rank of wing commander is above that of squadron leader and below that of group captain. In the former Royal Naval Air Service, which was merged with the Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force in 1918, the pilots held appointments as well as their normal ranks in the Royal Navy, and they wore insignia appropriate to
9th Air Refueling Squadron flown later the same month. In July, the squadron transferred the personnel and equipment at its detachment at Kunming to the 21st Photographic Squadron, which had just arrived in the theater. Tenth Air Force formed the provisional 5306th Photographic and Reconnaissance Group in October 1943 and attached the squadron to it. In December reconnaissance assets in India were centralized under Photo Reconnaissance Force, Eastern Air Command, a combined Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force headquarters. The provisional group was discontinued on 17 January 1944 and its components, including the 9th, returned to the control of Tenth Air Force. In