Air Force Reserve The wing was first activated as the
323rd Bombardment Wing at
Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma in June 1949 when
Continental Air Command implemented the
wing base organization for its reserve units, uniting support organizations and the
323rd Bombardment Group under a single headquarters. The wing was ordered to active duty on 10 March 1951 as a result of the
Korean War. Its personnel and equipment were used as fillers for other units and it was inactivated on 17 March 1951.
323rd Fighter-Bomber Wing The wing was reactivated at
Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana on 8 August 1955 and assigned to
Tactical Air Command's
Ninth Air Force. Initially training with North American F-86Fs, these were quickly upgraded to the
North American F-86H Sabre and then to the
North American F-100A/D Super Sabre in 1956 to become proficient in tactical air operations. Operational squadrons were the 453rd Fighter Bomber Squadron, 454th Fighter Bomber Squadron and 455th Fighter Bomber Squadron. The wing's aircraft wore a band on the tail and around the nose edged with small black checkers. In 1955,
Strategic Air Command (SAC) began stationing units at the base and the
Eighth Air Force claimed jurisdiction of Bunker Hill AFB in September 1957. With the turnover of the base from TAC to SAC, the 323rd was phased down and replaced by SAC's 401st Air Base Group on 1 September 1957.
323d Flying Training Wing The 323d was reactivated as the
323d Flying Training Wing (323 FTW), an
Air Training Command (ATC) undergraduate
navigator training (UNT) wing at
Mather Air Force Base, California on 1 April 1973, replacing the 3535th Navigator Training Wing which had existed at Mather since 1946. As the sole navigator training wing for the entire Air Force, the wing also conducted advanced training for newly-winged navigators slated for subsequent as navigator-bombardiers and electronic warfare officers in B-52, FB-111, B-1, EF-111 and RC-135 aircraft as well as weapon systems officers in F-4 Wild Weasel variants. The following operational squadrons were redesignated as a flying training squadrons as result of the 323rd's reactivation: 449th Flying Training Squadron, 450th Flying Training Squadron, 451st Flying Training Squadron, 452d Flying Training Squadron and the 432d Flying Training Squadron. The 323d also operated Mather as the "host" wing for the installation while SAC's
320th Bombardment Wing and the
Air Force Reserve's SAC-gained
940th Air Refueling Group, later 940th Air Refueling Wing, were "tenant" wings. The 323d also had responsibility for publishing
Navigator magazine, a USAF-wide professional publication. The 323 FTW also conducted operational test and evaluation of the T-43A aircraft from 1 August 1973 – 31 October 1973 and began conversion from the T-29 to the T-43 shortly afterwards. As the only USAF flight training school teaching air navigation, the wing served not only the active duty USAF, but also the
Air National Guard, the
Air Force Reserve and friendly foreign nations. With the decommissioning of the
U.S. Navy's Training Squadron TWENTY-NINE (VT-29) at
NAS Corpus Christi, TX in 1975, the 323 FTW also began training U.S. Navy student
Naval Flight Officers destined for land-based naval aircraft, NATO/Allied student naval flight officers under U.S. Navy responsibility also destined for land-based maritime aircraft, and
U.S. Coast Guard enlisted navigators for that service's HC-130 aircraft starting in July 1976. Instructor Naval Flight Officers, mostly from the Navy's
Lockheed P-3 Orion community, were administratively assigned to Naval Air Training Unit Mather (NAVAIRTU Mather) and embedded in the 323 FTW, teaching USAF, USN and NATO/Allied students. Support of the Marine Aerial Navigation School (MANS) for
U.S. Marine Corps enlisted KC-130 navigators also began in July 1976 when MANS moved from NAS Corpus Christi to Mather AFB. However, MANS conducted its own navigation training independently. In view of this influx of naval personnel, Naval Air Training Unit Mather (NAVAIRTU Mather) was established in 1976 under the Chief of Naval Air Training. In order to place the Navy organization on par with the 323d commander, a USN Captain or Captain-selectee naval flight officer who had already had been the commanding officer of an operational combat P-3 squadron was placed as the commanding officer of NAVAIRTU Mather, with administrative claimancy over all naval personnel (students, instructors and support staff) assigned to the 323d. The 323d began training female USAF navigators in March 1977 and female USN Naval Flight Officers (NFO) in 1981. Female USAF instructor navigators followed in the 1983–84 time frame. In 1986, LT
Kathryn P. Hire, USN, a former navigator and aircraft mission commander in the RP-3D Orion oceanographic research aircraft, became the first female USN NFO Instructor in the 323 FTW. Of note is that in 1993, then-LCDR Hire would become the first female assigned to the combat version of the
P-3C Orion, and as a CDR and CAPT, would become a NASA mission specialist astronaut, flying the
STS-90 mission in 1998 and the
STS-130 mission in 2010. On 15 December 1991, the 323d implemented the objective wing concept and the 449th, 450th, 451st, 452d and 432d FTSs were transferred to the new 323d Operations Group, and as well as reorganized into single aircraft type squadrons. All T-43As were assigned to the 445 FTS and T-37Bs to the 455 FTS. On 1 July 1993, following the disestablishment of the
Air Training Command, the wing was assigned to the new
Air Education and Training Command (
AETC). Under AETC, the T-43 and T-37 aircraft assigned to the 445th and 455th FTSs were assigned tail codes of "NT", but due to the
Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC)-directed closure of Mather on 30 September 1993, the 323 FTW was inactivated on 1 October 1993. With the wing's inactivation, its mission and most of its T-43 aircraft were reassigned to the
12th Flying Training Wing (12 FTW) and the 558th Flying Training Squadron (558 FTS) at
Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. Because of the presence of T-37B aircraft at Randolph AFB for T-37 Pilot Instructor Training, the Mather T-37s were sent to long-term storage at
AMARC at
Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
Expeditionary operations The Wing was provisionally activated at
Balotești in Romania from 14 March to 30 April 2008. It supported Operation Noble Endeavor, a Romanian-led mission to police the skies above the
NATO summit in Bucharest. The 323d directed the deployment of
KC-135 Stratotankers,
F-15C and
F-15E Strike Eagles,
E-3 Sentries, and
F-16 Fighting Falcons to locations across eastern Europe, augmenting the
Romanian Air Force efforts. The deployment also involved coordinating the support, maintenance, operations and medical personnel. As part of the operation, the
492d and
493rd Fighter Squadrons were assigned to the
404th Air Expeditionary Group, with the 492d deploying to the
Câmpia Turzii Air Base in Romania, and the 493rd deploying to the
Graf Ignatievo Air Base in Bulgaria. To support the two fighter squadrons, the
712th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron assigned to the
398th Air Expeditionary Group was deployed to the
Budapest International Airport in Hungary. The fighters were kept on 24-hour alert for the duration of the summit and conducted
combat air patrols over Bucharest for the three days of the summit. ==Lineage==