484th Air Expeditionary Wing

484th Air Expeditionary Wing
484th Air Expeditionary Wing
	Andersen AFB, Guam in 1966
Active	1943–1945, 1963–1967, 2003
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Air Expeditionary
Role	Combat Support
Part of	Air Combat Command
Motto(s)	Semper Ascendans Latin Always Ascending (World War II)
Engagements	World War II; European Campaign (1943–1945) Global War on Terrorism; Iraq campaign (To Be Determined)
Decorations	Distinguished Unit Citation
Insignia
484th Air Expeditionary Wing emblem
84th Bombardment Group emblem

The 484th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional

Operation Iraqi Freedom). It was headquartered at Prince Sultan Air Base

, Saudi Arabia.

The wing was originally activated in 1943 as the 484th Bombardment Group as a World War II

Distinguished Unit Citations

for missions in Germany and Austria. When hostilities in Europe ended, the group was assigned to expedite the movement of troops and equipment from Europe back to the United States,

The 484th Bombardment Wing was organized in February 1963 at

3d Air Division

for combat operations over Vietnam. The wing was inactivated on 25 March 1967 as part of the closure of Turner. In 1984, the group and wing were consolidated into a single unit.

History

World War II

The 484th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was constituted on 14 September 1943 as a

Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska. Its original squadrons were the newly activated 824th,^[3] 825th,^[4] and 826th Bombardment Squadrons^[4] and the 827th Bombardment Squadron,^[5] which moved to Harvard AAF after two years of anti-submarine warfare experience on the east coast of the United States^[6]

The

Mediterranean Theater of Operations in Southern Italy. It departed the United States in early March and arrived in April at Torretta Airfield, Italy, where it was part of Fifteenth Air Force. The group was redesignated 484th Bombardment Group (Pathfinder) in May 1944 but did not perform pathfinder functions. It became the 484th Bombardment Group, Heavy again in November 1944 and operated primarily as a strategic bombardment organization, April 1944 – April 1945. The 484th attacked such targets as oil refineries, oil storage plants, aircraft factories, heavy industry, and communications in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Rumania, and Yugoslavia.^[6]

On 13 June 1944 a heavy smoke screen prevented the group from bombing railroad

Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for its persistent action.^[6] The 484th received a second DUC for its performance on 22 August 1944 when, unescorted, the organization fought its way through intense opposition to attack underground oil storage installations in Vienna, Austria.^[6]

In addition to strategic missions, the 484th participated in the drive toward Rome by bombing bridges, supply dumps, viaducts, and marshalling yards in April through June 1944. It also ferried gasoline and oil to Allied forces in southern France in September 1944 and supported the final advance by Fifth Army through northern Italy in April 1945.[6]

After

Casablanca Airfield, French Morocco.^[6] The group moved personnel from staging areas in France and Italy to Casablanca and also south to Dakar in French West Africa where personnel were transported across the South Atlantic to Brazil and eventually to Morrison Field, Florida.^{[citation needed}

] Provided air transport until the end of July when the unit was inactivated.

Strategic Air Command

4138th Strategic Wing

The origins of the 484th Bombardment Wing can be traced to 1 January 1959 when

cruise missiles

, The 4138th Airborne Missile Maintenance Squadron was activated in November to maintain these missiles. However, SAC strategic wings could not carry a permanent history or lineage and SAC looked for a way to make its Strategic Wings permanent.

484th Bombardment Wing

In 1962, in order 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 Major Command controlled (MAJCON) strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate Air Force controlled (AFCON) units, most of which were inactive at the time which could carry a lineage and history.^[11] As a result, the 4138th was replaced by the newly constituted 484th Bombardment Wing, Heavy, which assumed its mission, personnel, and equipment on 1 February 1963.^[2] Although the 484th Wing was a new organization, it continued, through temporary bestowal, the history, and honors of the World War II 484th Bombardment Group.^[12]

In the same way the 824th Bombardment Squadron, one of the unit's World War II historical bomb squadrons, replaced the 336st. The 822d Medical Group, 62d Munitions Maintenance Squadron and the 919th Air Refueling Squadron were reassigned to the 484th. Component support units were replaced by units with numerical designation of the newly established wing. Under the Dual Deputate organization, all flying and maintenance squadrons were directly assigned to the wing, so no operational group element was activated. The 4138th's support group and maintenance squadrons were replaced by ones with the 484th numerical designation of the newly established wing. Each of the new units assumed the personnel, equipment, and mission of its predecessor.

The 484th wing trained for strategic bombardment and undertook

3d Air Division for combat operations over Vietnam.^[2]

In April 1966, B-52Ds of the wing, together with D series bombers of the

28th Bombardment Wing deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, replacing the B-52Fs that SAC had been deploying to Andersen for the Vietnam War since the previous year. The 484th's planes and other B-52Ds had been modified under a program called Big Belly, which increased the bombload of wing aircraft to 84 500lb bombs or 42 750lb bombs, from the 27 it could previously carry.^[13]

From this point, the Big Belly B-52D became the SAC workhorse in Southeast Asia.

By 1967,

Indochina. The 484th Bombardment Wing was inactivated on 25 March 1967^[2]

and its aircraft were reassigned to other SAC units. As part of the inactivation, Turner AFB was closed; the property was transferred to the United States Navy and being redesignated as Naval Air Station Albany.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

In 2003, the wing was converted to provisional status as the 484th Air Expeditionary Wing and activated as part of

Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The role of the 484th AEW was to provide a centralized command and control element to support all Tactical Air Control Parties and Combat Weather Teams operating in the Southwest Asia theater of operations.^[14] It provided combat enabling, contingency response, terminal attack and combat weather support to the coalition air forces and special forces and Army maneuver units on the battlefield. It was headquartered at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia (24 January 2003 – later in 2003).^[15]

The wing consisted of six groups (the 3rd, 4th and 18th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Groups, a Mission Support Group, a Maintenance Group, and a Medical Group) and about 3,400 personnel.[16] Operations during OEF included a joint airborne assault with the 86th Contingency Response Group from Ramstein Air Base, Germany that included twenty airmen from the wing parachuting into northern Iraq with more than 1,000 soldiers of the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade. Their skills helped prepare and open an airfield for C-17 Globemaster IIIs that delivered more than 1 million pounds of people and cargo every night into the operations area.^{[citation needed]}

Approximately 500 forward air controllers were provided by the wing's air support operations groups to Army ground forces during OEF, and airmen from the 484th accompanied U.S. forces when they entered the streets of Baghdad in March 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Comments by Major Birch in his Air University paper strongly suggest that the 484th AEW was a temporary organization created specifically for the Iraq campaign and that the wing was inactivated after the invasion had been successful.^[15]

Lineage

484th Bombardment Group

Constituted as the 484th Bombardment Group (Heavy) on 14 September 1943

Activated on 20 September 1943

Redesignated 484th Bombardment Group, Heavy on 28 January 1944

Redesignated 484th Bombardment Group (Pathfinder) on 14 February 1944

Redesignated 484th Bombardment Group, Heavy on 11 November 1944

Inactivated on 25 July 1945

Consolidated on 31 January 1984 with the 484th Bombardment Wing as the 484th Bombardment Wing^[17]

484th Wing

Constituted as the 484th Bombardment Wing Heavy on 15 November 1962 and activated (not organized)

Organized on 1 February 1963

Discontinued and inactivated, on 25 March 1967.

Consolidated on 31 January 1984 with the 484th Bombardment Group (remained inactive)
Redesignated as 484th Air Expeditionary Wing, and converted to provisional status: 13 January 2003^[17]

Activated on 24 January 2003

Inactivated in April 2003

Assignments

17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing
, 20 September – November 1943)
49th Bombardment Wing, ca. 14 March 1944
North African Division, Air Transport Command, 25 May 1945 – 25 July 1945

Strategic Air Command, 15 November 1962 (not organized)
822d Air Division, 1 February 1963
823d Air Division, 2 September 1966 – 25 March 1967.
United States Air Forces Central
), 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003

Components

Groups

18th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group, 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003
4th Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group, 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003
3d Expeditionary Air Support Operations Group, 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003
484th Combat Support Group (later 484th Expeditionary Mission Support Group), 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967, 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003
484th Expeditionary Maintenance Group, 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003
484th Expeditionary Medical Group, 24 January 2003 – Apr 2003
822d Medical Group, 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967

Operational Squadrons

824th Bombardment Squadron: 20 September 1943 – 25 July 1945; 1 February 1963 – 25 January 1967^[17] (not operational, 1 April–c. 29 September 1966)
825th Bombardment Squadron: 20 September 1943 – 25 July 1945^[17]
826th Bombardment Squadron: 20 September 1943 – 25 July 1945^[17]
827th Bombardment Squadron: 20 September 1943 – 25 July 1945^[17]
919th Air Refueling Squadron: 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967^[17] (not operational, 1 April–c. 29 September 1966).

Maintenance Squadrons

484th Airborne Missile Maintenance Squadron, 1 February 1963 – unknown
484th Armament & Electronics Maintenance Squadron, 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967
484th Field Maintenance Squadron, 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967
484th Organizational Maintenance Squadron, 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967

Stations

Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska, 20 September 1943 – 2 March 1944
Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia, 4 March 1944 – 13 March 1944 (ground echelon)
Djedeida, Tunisia, 27 March 1944 (air echelon)
Torretta Airfield, Italy, 9 April 1944 (ground echelon), 14 April 1944 (air echelon)
Casablanca Airfield, French Morocco, c. 25 May 1945 – 25 July 1945
Turner Air Force Base, Georgia, 1 February 1963 – 25 March 1967^[17]
Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, 2003
Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, 2003

Aircraft

Consolidated B-24 Liberator, 1943–1945
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, 1963–1966, 1966–1967
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, 1963–1966, 1966–1967.

References

Notes

Explanatory notes

^ Approved 19 March 1964.

Citations

^ ^a ^b Watson, p. 118
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Ravenstein, p. 12
^ Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 770–771
^ ^a ^b Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 771
^ Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 771–772
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 355–356
^ "Factsheet 822 Air Division". Air Force Historical Research Agency. 11 October 2007. Archived from the original on 30 October 2012. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
^ "Abstract (Unclassified), Vol 1, History of Strategic Air Command, Jan–Jun 1957 (Secret)". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
^ Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 415
^ "Abstract (Unclassified), History of the Strategic Bomber since 1945 (Top Secret, downgraded to Secret)". Air Force History Index. 1 April 1975. Retrieved 4 March 2014.
^ MAJCON units could not carry a permanent history or lineage Ravenstein, p 12
^ It was also entitled to retain the honors (but not the history or lineage) of the 4138th. This temporary bestowal ended in January 1984, when the wing and group were consolidated into a single unit.
^ Knaack, p. 256
^ Birch,p. 72
^ ^a ^b Birch
^ Birch, p. 74
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Bailey, Carl E. (22 September 2008). "Lineage and Honors History of the 484th Air Expeditionary Wing" (PDF). Air Force Historical Research Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011.