Air Defense Command warning and control The
552d Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing was activated on 8 July 1955 at
McClellan Air Force Base, California, when it assumed command of the
963d and
964th Airborne Air Control Squadrons, which had been activated that March. The wing's third operational squadron, the
965th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron was activated the next month. The wing replaced the Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing, Provisional, which had been organized at McClellan on 1 January. Initially, the wing was assigned to the
8th Air Division, which also controlled the
551st Airborne Early Warning and Control Wing at
Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts, which performed the same mission off the Atlantic seaboard. In July 1957,
Air Defense Command (ADC) inactivated the 8th Division and the wing was assigned to
Western Air Defense Force. In July 1963, the
966th Airborne Early Warning and Control Squadron at
McCoy Air Force Base, Florida was transferred from the 551st Wing. The 966th's mission was to provide expanded coverage off the Florida coastline, which included possible intrusions into American airspace from Cuba. This assignment continued with a brief interruption until the 966th was inactivated in December 1969. At the end of 1969, with the inactivation of the 551st Wing, the 552d assumed the responsibility for deploying EC-121s to Iceland. In 1962, the wing began to support
Project Mercury, and in April 1963, it participated in the recovery of
Faith 7, and astronaut
Gordon Cooper. The wing's operational squadrons began to be reduced starting in 1969, and on 1 July 1974, with only a single flying squadron assigned, the Air Force redesignated the wing as the
552d Airborne Warning and Control Group. It was inactivated on 30 April 1976. following a hard landing at
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The landing broke the jet's nose landing gear, causing the plane to slide 4,500 feet down the runway before stopping. The aircraft's crew suffered only minor injuries. A subsequent Air Force investigation blamed the mishap on co-pilot error (as he had control of the aircraft during the landing procedure), saying that the aircraft's pilots lost track of the plane's altitude and rate of descent and reacted too late before the aircraft hit the runway. Neither pilot had more than a few hundred hours of flying time in the aircraft. ==Lineage==