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6th Battalion (Theater), 52nd Aviation Regiment
"Flying Dragons"

The 6th Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment is headquartered at Los Alamitos, California. Elements of the Battalion are also based at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin (2nd Platoon, B Company) and Fort Hood, Texas (2nd Platoon, C Company). The Battalion flies a mix of C-12 twin-engine turboprop and UC-35 jet aircraft.

The 6th Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment was first constituted on 16 October 1995 in the Army Reserve as the 6th Battalion (less Company A), 52nd Aviation. Company A, 6th Battalion, 52nd Aviation was concurrently constituted in the Regular Army and activated in Korea, separate from the rest of the Battalion. The Battalion was subsequently activated (less Company A) on 16 September 1996 with Headquarters at Los Alamitos, California.

After being formed in 1995, the Battalion, along with 2-228th Aviation, flew thousands of hours in Europe in support of peacekeeping operations in Bosnia. The Battalion continued to support the respective commanders in chief in Southwest Asia and Germany with forward-deployed aircraft after that. The most active of Army Reserve aviation units at the time were the 6-52nd Aviation and the 2-228th Aviation, both theater aviation fixed-wing battalions.

Military pilots flying the UC-35A were either full-time Army Reserve or active duty personnel, assigned or attached to elements of the 244th Theater Aviation Brigade, including 2nd Platoon, Company C, 6th Battalion, 52nd Aviation, located at Fort Hood, Texas. Special training for the UC-35A involved 2 weeks of simulator training and 2 weeks of training in the aircraft before a highly experienced fixed-wing pilot is rated as qualified on the aircraft. The new jets supplemented the existing fleet of aging C-12 twin-engine turboprop aircraft that had been the mainstay of the Army's passenger fleet. By the time the UC-35 entered service in the early 2000s, the C-12 aircraft had been in service for some 25 years, with about a half dozen then based at Fort Hood's Robert Gray Army Airfield.

In 2007, the decision was made to activate a command to serve as the functional command and control element over all Army Reserve aviation units. With the activation of the 11th Aviation Command and the reorganization of Army Reserve aviation elements, 6-52nd Aviation was reassigned directly to the command from the 244th Aviation Brigade.