Prewar The
16th Bombardment Wing was first activated at
Langley Field, Virginia, in December 1940 as part of the expansion of the
Air Corps in response to the war in Europe (Woodring Plan). Its operational components, the
45th and
46th Bombardment Groups, were assigned in January 1941. It moved to
Bowman Field, Kentucky, in the spring of 1941. In September 1941, the
wing was inactivated and its personnel used to form the
5th Air Support Command.
Operational Training Unit The
wing was again activated on 23 June 1942 at
Wendover Field, Utah, replacing the inactivating
102nd Bombardment Wing (Provisional). The 16th Wing was responsible for the supervision and control of the operational training of heavy bombardment
groups (
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and
Consolidated B-24 Liberator) The 16th Wing controlled the training of the following units, which on completion moved to the
17th Bombardment Wing for third phase training. : Jul 1942:
91st Bombardment Group,
303rd Bombardment Group,
305th Bombardment Group and
306th Bombardment Group. : Aug 1942:
96th Bombardment Group. : Aug-Sep 1942:
307th Bombardment Group and
302nd Bombardment Group. : Sep-Oct 1942:
88th Bombardment Group and
95th Bombardment Group. : Oct 1942:
2nd Bombardment Group,
99th Bombardment Group,
100th Bombardment Group,
304th Bombardment Group and
308th Bombardment Group. Two groups, the
330th Bombardment Group at
Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico and the
331st Bombardment Group at
Casper Army Air Field, Wyoming, provided second phase training to Replacement Combat Crews. On 2 November 1942, the Second Air Force reorganized its bombardment training. From that date its wings controlled new bombardment groups from their activation until completion of operational training. The wing also assumed responsibility for training replacement combat crews. With this reorganization the
16th Bombardment Training Wing now controlled
Operational Training Units (OTUs) at
Clovis Army Air Field, New Mexico,
Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona;
Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska and
Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico. It also was assigned Replacement Control Centers (RCCs) at
Pueblo Army Air Field, Colorado and
Biggs Field, Texas. It was assigned the following OTU groups to conduct training: :
39th Bombardment Group at Davis-Monthan Field, Tucson, Arizona: parent group, First Phase OTU. :
302nd Bombardment Group at Pueblo AAB, Colorado: parent group, First Phase Training RCC. :
330th Bombardment Group at Alamogordo AAFld, New Mexico: Second Phase OTU. :
330th Bombardment Group at Biggs Field, El Paso, Texas: Second Phase RCC. :
333d Bombardment Group at Topeka AAF, Kansas: Third Phase Training RCC. The wing mission changed to very heavy bombardment group training (
Boeing B-29 Superfortress), which lasted until operations ceased in late 1945. It moved to
Colorado Springs, Colorado, where it was a paper unit until inactivating in 1946. ==Lineage==