| 320th Air Expeditionary Wing | |
|---|---|
320th Air Expeditionary Wing |
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| Active | 1942–1989, since 1998 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Garrison/HQ | Bolling AFB, DC. |
| Motto | Strength through Awareness |
| Engagements |
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| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders |
George Lee Butler Howell M. Estes II |
The 320th Air Expeditionary Wing (320 AEW) is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force District of Washington. It is stationed at Bolling AFB, District of Columbia. The 320 AEW may be activated or inactivated at any time.
The 320 AEW was activated at Bolling in December 2006 for former President Gerald Ford’s state funeral during the Christmas and New Year holidays, attaching 634 personnel to complete a 10-day mission in three joint-operation areas. In less than 12 hours from notification, the 320 AEW deployed 167 joint forces and equipment for JTF Ceremony Forward.
It was activated in December 2008 to support Air Force requirements during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, working with the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee, or AFIC.
The wing is the successor organization to the World War II Twelfth Air Force 320th Bombardment Group. The highly-decorated unit was equipped with the Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft. The 320th Bombardment Wing was a component organization of Strategic Air Command's deterrent force during the Cold War, as a strategic bombardment wing.
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Constituted as 320th Bombardment Group (Medium) on 19 June 1942 and activated on 23 June at MacDill Field (now MacDill AFB), Florida. Operational squadrons of the group were the 441st, 442d, 443d and 444th Bomb Squadrons. The 320th was equipped with the Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft.
The group was subsequently relocated to nearby Drane Field (now Lakeland Linder Regional Airport), Florida. Most of the group moved to North Africa via England, August–December 1942; crews flew their planes over the South Atlantic route and arrived in North Africa, December 1942 – January 1943.
Began combat with Twelfth Air Force in April 1943 and operated from bases in Algeria, Tunisia, Sardinia, and Corsica until November 1944. During the period April–July 1943, flew missions against enemy shipping in the approaches to Tunisia, attacked installations in Sardinia, participated in the reduction of Pantelleria, and supported the Allied invasion of Sicily. Then bombed marshalling yards, bridges, airdromes, road junctions, viaducts, harbors, fuel dumps, defense positions, and other targets in Italy. Supported forces at Salerno and knocked out targets to aid the seizure of Naples and the crossing of the Volturno River. Flew missions to Anzio and Cassino and engaged in interdictory operations in central Italy in preparation for the advance toward Rome.
Received the French Croix de Guerre with Palm for action in preparation for and in support of Allied offensive operations in central Italy, April–June 1944. Received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for a mission on 12 May 1944 when, in the face of an intense antiaircraft barrage, the group bombed enemy troop concentrations near Fondi in support of the U.S. Fifth Army's advance toward Rome. From June to November 1944 operations included interdictory missions in the Po Valley, support for the invasion of Southern France and attacks on enemy communications in northern Italy.
Moved to France in November 1944 and bombed bridges, rail lines, gun positions, barracks, supply points, ammunition dumps, and other targets in France and Germany until V-E Day. Received a 2d DUC for operations on 15 March 1945 when the group bombed pillboxes, trenches, weapon pits, and roads within the Siegfried Line to enable a breakthrough by the U.S. Seventh Army.
With the end of hostilities in Europe, the group moved to Germany in June 1945 and participated in the disarmament program. Returned to the United States, November–December 1945, and was inactivated on 4 December 1945.
The 320th Bombardment Wing, Medium was established at March AFB, California on 1 December 1952. The 320th BW assumed the assets of the federalized New York Air National Guard 106th Bombardment Wing which was brought onto active duty during the Korean War.
At March, the wing was initially equipped with second-line B-29 Superfortresses and conducted global bombardment training and air refueling operations to meet SAC commitments. This wing was also employed for training Air Force Reservists and Air National Guardsmen to backfill rotating B-29 Superfortress combat crews which were deployed by Fifteenth Air Force to Far East Air Forces serving in the Korean War.
Replaced the propeller-driven B-29s with new B-47E Stratojet swept-wing medium bombers in 1953, capable of flying at high subsonic speeds and primarily designed for penetrating the airspace of the Soviet Union. Trained the initial B-47 cadre for the 96th Bombardment Wing, Medium, December 1953 – January 1955 and subsequently deployed as a wing to RAF Brize Norton, England, 5 June – 4 September 1954, and Andersen AFB, Guam, 5 October 1956 – 11 January 1957. In the late 1950s, the B-47 Stratojet was considered to be reaching obsolescence, and was being phased out of SAC's strategic arsenal. Aircraft were reassigned to other SAC units as replacements in late 1959 and 1960 becoming non-operational.
With the retirement of the Stratojet, the 320th Bomb Wing was reassigned to Mather AFB, California, an Air Training Command (ATC) base, on 1 February 1963 where it assumed the assets of the 4134th Strategic Wing, a SAC tenant command at Mather. The 4134th SW was established by SAC on 1 April 1958 at Mather as part of SAC's plan to disburse its B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike. The wing consisted of the 72d Bombardment Squadron, consisting of 15 B-52Gs, and the KC-135A-equipped 904th Air Refueling Squadron. Half of the aircraft were maintained on fifteen minute alert, fully fueled, armed, and ready for combat. SAC Strategic Wings were considered "provisional units" by HQ USAF and could not carry a permanent history or lineage.
In 1962, in order to retain the lineage of its MAJCOM 4-digit combat units and to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records, Headquarters SAC received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its MAJCOM strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate AFCON units, most of which were inactive at the time which could carry a lineage and history.
With the redesignation to the 320th BW, the 72d BS was also redesignated as the 441st Bombardment Squadron, one of the unit's World War II historical bomb squadrons. The 904th ARS designation was unchanged, and component support units were also redesignated to the 320th numerical designation of the newly-established wing. As under the Tri-Deputate organization, all flying components were directly assigned to the wing, no operational group element was activated.
At Mather, the wing performed global bombardment training and air refueling operations to meet SAC commitments, February 1963–1965 and later. The entire wing was drastically reduced February–July 1965, December 1965 – March 1966, and June 1972 – October 1973, when all aircraft, crews, and most support personnel were loaned to other SAC units based at Andersen AFB Guam, RTNAS U-Tapao, Thailand and Kadena AB, Okinawa for operations in Southeast Asia.
Starting in 1972, the 3542d Operations Squadron conducted Convair T-29 pilot training for the Fifteenth Air Force in conjunction with the 323d Flying Training Wing of the Air Training Command (ATC) to support the Undergraduate Navigator Training (UNT) program at Mather. The 3542nd Operations Squadron was inactivated in 1973 and the T-29s were retired in 1973 and 1974 concurrent with the introduction of the Boeing 737-200-based T-43A.
In the early 1980s, the 320 BW and the 441 BS were equipped to carry, and trained in the employment of, the US Navy's AGM-84 Harpoon missile and various types of anti-ship mines as part of a joint USN-USAF initiative to employ USAF bomber aircraft in maritime operations.
The 904 ARS was inactivated 1 October 1986 and its older KC-135As modified to KC-135E standard and redistributed to other SAC units or sent to AMARC at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona for storage. The 441 BS with its B-52Gs was inactivated on 30 September 1989. It was the first squadron to inactivate with the gradual drawdown of the B-52G fleet pursuant to START reductions of the USAF strategic bomber force.
The 320th Bombardment Wing was inactivated on 30 September 1989. It was the first B-52 wing to be inactivated in conjunction with the phased retirement of the B-52G fleet and was also made in conjunction with the pending closure of Mather AFB in 1993 due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) action.
In 1997, the 320th was reactivated as the 320th Air Expeditionary Group (320 AEG) at Eskan Village, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As an element of U.S. Central Command Air Forces (USCENTAF) / 9th Air Force (9 AF), the 320 AEG was a ground-based non-flying organization, with the 320 AEG replacing the earlier 4409th Air Base Group (Provisional) at Eskan that had been in existence since Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM in 1990–91. However, Globalsecurity.org shows the changeover happening on 1 December 1998, not 1997.[1]
The primary mission of the 320 AEG at Eskan was to provide liaison with Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defense and Aviation (MODA) for Eskan Village and to provide host base support to the combatant staff of Joint Task Force Southwest Asia (JTF-SWA) and the 9th Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force (9 ASETF), including its associated Coalition Air Operations Center (CAOC), conducting Operation SOUTHERN WATCH, which provided principal senior command and control of all U.S. and Coalition combat flying units enforcing the "No Fly Zone" over Southern Iraq prior to execution of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM in 2003. The 320 AEG also supported United States Military Training Mission (USMTM) Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Office of Program Management – Saudi Arabian National Guard (OPM-SANG), as well as the Royal Air Force and French Air Force headquarters elements also located at Eskan Village.
In 2005 the 320th Air Expeditionary Group was replaced by the 64th Air Expeditionary Group, a component of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing.
The 320th was then renamed as the 320th Air Expeditionary Wing (320 AEW) and was reassigned to the Air Force District of Washington at Bolling AFB for National Capital Region (NCR) support duties, such as supporting the inauguration of Barack Obama.[2]
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Squadrons
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
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