13th Strategic Missile Division
| 13th Strategic Missile Division | |
|---|---|
 564th Strategic Missile Squadron Convair SM-65D Atlas[1] | |
| Active | 1940–1966 |
| Country |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Air Force |
| Role | Strategic Missile Command and Control |
| Engagements |
|
| Insignia | |
| 13th Strategic Missile Division emblem (approved 4 January 1961)[2] |  |
The 13th Strategic Missile Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Fifteenth Air Force, based at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming. It was inactivated on 2 July 1966.
Initially formed in 1940 as an air defense formation in the Caribbean, it later commanded Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress groups of Eighth Air Force in the United Kingdom. Its units carried out strategic bombardment missions over Occupied Europe and Nazi Germany. During the Cold War, the division controlling early ICBM wings of Strategic Air Command in the Midwest.
History
The unit was initially organized at
Caribbean Air Force as a command organization for units in the Caribbean.[4]
Assigned to
VI Interceptor Command, Antilles Air Task Force.[4]
The organization was reactivated as the 13th Bombardment Wing in October 1942 at
3d Bombardment Division, flying Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses.[3] Controlling the combat operations of the groups, it carried out strategic bombing of enemy aircraft, petroleum, and ball bearing industries as well as German airfields. Later, organizational units took part in the famous raid against the ball bearing industry at Schweinfurt in October 1943 and followed with missions against shipyards and shipbuilding installations at Wilhelmshaven and Bremen.[3][5] With the end of the war in Europe, it returned to the United States and was inactivated on 17 October 1945.[3]
The wing was redesignated as the 13th Air Division and then activated under
LGM-30A Minuteman I.[3]
In 1965, the first-generation Atlas
Lincoln Air Force Base, Nebraska afterwards, however the 13th Strategic Missile Division was itself inactivated in July 1966, its mission being taken over by the 821st Strategic Aerospace Division in a SAC reorganization.[2][9]
Lineage
- Established as the 13th Composite Wing on 2 October 1940
- Activated on 10 October 1940
- Inactivated on 17 April 1942
- Redesignated: 13th Bombardment Wing on 23 August 1942
- Activated on 1 October 1942
- Redesignated 13th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) on 1 February 1943
- Redesignated 13th Combat Bombardment Wing (Heavy) on 30 August 1943
- Redesignated 13th Combat Bombardment Wing, Heavy on 24 August 1944
- Redesignated 13th Bombardment Wing, Heavy on 18 June 1945
- Redesignated 13th Bombardment Wing, Very Heavy on 17 August 1945
- Inactivated on 17 October 1945
- Redesignated 13th Air Division on 20 May 1959
- Activated on 1 July 1959
- Redesignated 13th Strategic Missile Division on 1 January 1963
- Discontinued and inactivated, on 2 July 1966[2]
Assignments
|
|
Components
|
Wings
Squadron
|
Groups
|
Stations
|
|
Aircraft and missiles
|
|
Heraldry
Light blue, issuant from base a sphere light green with land areas vert, grid lined azure, the sinister quarter of the last with grid lines of the field, above the sphere in chief an olive branch arched fesswise or, overall an aircraft and a missile bendwise each trailing speedlines of the like and all within a diminished border of the last.[2]
References
Notes
- ^ Serial 58-220, on pad 564-A2, Warren I site, F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming, 1959
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Factsheet 13 Strategic Missile Division". Air Force Historical Research Agency. 4 October 2007. Archived from the original on 30 October 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 382–383
- ^ a b Hagedorn, [page needed]
- ^ Freeman, [page needed]
- ^ SAC.com 703d Missile Wing
- ^ Ravenstein, [page needed]
- ^ a b Walker & Powell, [page needed]
- ^ "Factsheet 821 Strategic Aerospace Division". Air Force Historical Research Agency. 11 October 2007. Archived from the original on 30 October 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
Bibliography
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- Freeman, Roger A. (1970). The Mighty Eighth: Units, Men and Machines (A History of the US 8th Army Air Force). London, England, UK: Macdonald and Company. ISBN 978-0-87938-638-2.
- Hagedorn, Dan (1995). Alae Supra Canalem: Wings Over the Canal. New York, NY: Turner Publishing Co. ISBN 978-1563111532.
- Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961]. Air Force Combat Units of World War II (PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. LCCN 61060979.
- Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947–1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9.
- Walker, Chuck & Powell, Joel (2005). Atlas The Ultimate Weapon. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Apogee Books. ISBN 1-894959-18-3.
