World War II The
484th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was constituted on 14 September 1943 as a
Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy
bombardment group and activated on 20 September at
Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska. Its original
squadrons were the newly activated
824th,
825th, and
826th Bombardment Squadrons which moved to Harvard AAF after two years of
anti-submarine warfare experience on the east coast of the United States The
group completed training at Harvard AAF in February 1944 and then deployed to 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. as part of SAC's plan to disperse its
Boeing 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 also assumed host base responsibility for Turner from the
31st Tactical Fighter Wing as Turner transferred to SAC from
Tactical Air Command. On 1 February 1959 the wing's first squadron associated with its strategic bombardment mission, the 62d Aviation Depot Squadron, was activated to oversee the wing's special weapons. It received its first combat aircraft when the
336th Bombardment Squadron, with 15 Boeing B-52 Stratofortresses moved to Turner from
Biggs Air Force Base, Texas where it had been one of the three squadrons of the
95th Bombardment Wing. The
wing did not become fully operational until 1 June 1960 when the
919th Air Refueling Squadron, flying
Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers moved to Turner from
Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. Starting in 1960, one third of the squadron's aircraft were maintained on fifteen-minute
alert, fully fueled and ready for combat to reduce vulnerability to a Soviet missile strike. This was increased to half the squadron's aircraft in 1962. The 4138th (and later the 484th) continued to maintain an alert commitment until deploying to
Andersen Air Force Base Guam to support combat operations in Southeast Asia. In 1962, the wing's
bombers began to be equipped with the
GAM-77 Hound Dog and the
GAM-72 Quail air-launched
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. 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. From this point, the Big Belly B-52D became the SAC workhorse in Southeast Asia. By 1967,
Intercontinental ballistic missiles had been deployed and become operational as part of the United States' strategic triad, and the need for B-52s had been reduced. In addition, funds were also needed to cover the costs of combat operations in
Indochina. The 484th Bombardment Wing was inactivated on 25 March 1967 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. ==Lineage==