7509th Air Base Group / 3918th Strategic Wing In response to what was perceived as a growing worldwide threat,
Strategic Air Command decided to house a strong force of American bomber aircraft in England. It was decided to convert four airfields in and around Oxfordshire to serve as their regular stations. Upper Heyford was one of those selected, the others being
RAF Brize Norton,
RAF Fairford and
RAF Greenham Common. On 26 June 1950, men of the 801st Engineer Aviation Battalion started work on extending the runway and constructing new hardstands for SAC's larger bombers such as
Convair B-36 Peacemaker and
Boeing B-50 Superfortress. Days later on 7 July 1950, the first group of United States Air Force personnel arrived to form the 7509th Air Base Squadron, who would act as the host organisation to support the
TDY aircraft and personnel detached from their home airfields in the United States of America. Upper Heyford was formally handed over to the
USAF Third Air Force on 15 May 1951, and in January 1952 they relinquished control of the station and turned it over to
Strategic Air Command. Over a period of years the 7509th ABS was redesignated a number of times, eventually becoming the
3918th Combat Support Group, until it was inactivated in 1965 when SAC turned control over Upper Heyford to the
United States Air Forces in Europe.
TDY rotational deployments The first SAC aircraft to be based at Upper Heyford were the 15
Boeing B-50Ds of the
328th Bombardment Squadron, which arrived in December 1951, whilst the other three-squadrons of the
93rd Bombardment Wing were deployed to
RAF Lakenheath. Visiting TDY rotational units at Upper Heyford included: 93rd Bomb Wing, 97th Air Refueling Squadron, 509th Air Refueling Squadron, 301st Bomb Wing, 8th Air Sea Rescue Squadron, 2nd Bomb Wing, 5th Bomb Wing Detachment, and the 22nd Bomb Wing. By September 1952, Upper Heyford was ready to handle a full complement of 45 aircraft and when the
2nd Bombardment Wing arrived it deployed all three of its bombardment squadrons here with their B-50s. SAC Squadrons and Wings continued to be deployed to the base throughout the 1950s and 60's. One of the most notable events of 1954 was the arrival of the first of the truly massive
Convair RB-36 Peacemakers, a small number of which flew in for a brief stay in June and July by the
5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. Occasional visits by the huge
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress commenced at the end of 1960 and became more and more frequent over the next five years. Meanwhile, following nuclear tests behind the '
Iron Curtain' in the summer of 1962, a detachment of
Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft operated from Upper Heyford in August to carry out air sampling and analysis at very high altitudes in order to determine the characteristics of latest
Soviet weapons. A third new aircraft type, the
Convair B-58 Hustler, was occasionally seen. Detachment 1,
98th Strategic Wing, supported visiting
Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker from the Spanish Tanker Task Force at
Torrejon AB Spain and
Boeing RC-135 of the
55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and
6th Strategic Wing. The
6985th Electronic Security Squadron also maintained a detachment at Upper Heyford, supporting Communications Intelligence Specialists flying on the RC-135s. In 1964, it was decided that regular detachments of SAC bomber aircraft to England would cease altogether, with the last
Operation Reflex alert at Upper Heyford on 1 January 1965. The USAF maintained their presence at RAF Upper Heyford, but
RAF Brize Norton,
RAF Fairford and
RAF Greenham Common were returned to RAF control,
66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing (1966-70) On 7 March 1966, French President
Charles De Gaulle announced that France would withdraw from NATO's integrated military structure. The United States was informed that it must remove its military forces from France by 1 April 1967. Upper Heyford was now to serve as the new and urgently needed base for the
McDonnell RF-101 Voodoos of the
66th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing which had been stationed at
Laon-Couvron Air Base,
France. The 66th TRW was composed of the
17th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron and
18th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron who arrived at RAF Upper Heyford with 36
RF-101C Voodoo on 11 September 1966. The Base Flight (66th Field Maintenance Squadron) also maintained a small number of
Douglas C-54 Skymaster,
Douglas C-47 Skytrain, and
Convair VT-29 Samaritan. On 27 March 1969, the first two
McDonnell Douglas RF-4C Phantom II flew into Upper Heyford. and the 66th became a mixed reconnaissance force. The RF-101C's were assigned to the 18th TRS and were limited to the daylight role. The RF-4C's were assigned to the 17th TRS and were capable of an all weather day and night operation, along with greater range. In June 1983 there were larger protests culminating when 4,000 people converged as part of a campaign to prevent the expansion of the base. During a blockade, 752 people were arrested.
Operation El Dorado Canyon In March 1986, the 66th Electronic Combat Wing detached the 42nd ECS to the 20th TFW to take part in
El Dorado Canyon, the raid on Libya. On 14 April 1986, 5 EF-111As and 20 F-111Es took off from RAF Upper Heyford as part of the attack force. They were used as an airborne reserve for the F-111Fs of the 48th TFW,
RAF Lakenheath. Three EF-111s (two were spares and turned back) formed up with the 48th's F-111Fs and provided electronic defense during the
attack on Tripoli.
Operation Desert Storm On 25 January 1991, during the
Gulf War, the wing was once again up to four flying squadrons when the 42nd Electronic Combat Squadron was reassigned to the 20th from the 66th Electronic Combat Wing. On 17 January 1991, 20th TFW aircraft launched combat missions from both
Turkey and
Saudi Arabia and continued flying combat missions until the cease fire. The F-111Es flying from Turkey flew night missions throughout the war, using
terrain-following radar (TFR) to penetrate the dense anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) environment at altitudes around for the first few nights. Crews who flew those first few terrifying nights said that the illumination from the AAA was so bright that they didn't need the TFR to avoid the ground. After the missile threat was suppressed, crews flew their attacks at altitudes around , above the range of most Iraqi AAA systems. During the war, the F-111Es attacked a range of targets, including power plants, petroleum refineries, airfields, nuclear-biological-chemical processing and storage facilities, and electronics sites throughout northern Iraq, When Desert Storm ended, the wing had deployed 458 personnel, flown 1,798 combat sorties without a loss, and dropped 4,714 tons of ordnance.
Post Cold War era With the end of the
Cold War, the 20th TFW was deemed no longer necessary in the United Kingdom, and the USAF presence at RAF Upper Heyford was gradually phased down. The 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, along with the associated
55th,
77th, and
79th Tactical Fighter Squadrons were officially re-designated the 20th Fighter Wing and 55th, 77th and 79th Fighter Squadrons on 1 October 1991. On 19 October 1993, aircraft 67-120 went to the
Imperial War Museum in Duxford where it is now on display. It retains the 55th Fighter Squadron, 20th Fighter Wing markings it carried when stationed at RAF Upper Heyford. It flew 19 Desert Storm missions and flew into Duxford on 19 October 1993. The last of the wing's three F-111E aircraft departed from Upper Heyford on 7 December 1993. The flagship of the 55th Fighter Squadron, aircraft 68-055
Heartbreaker, departed first. It went to
Robins AFB, Georgia, where it is now on display. The next aircraft, 68-061
The Last Roll of Me Dice, departed for the
Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at
Davis Monthan AFB Arizona, in the USA. Finally aircraft 68-020
The Chief, flew to
Hill AFB,
Utah, where it is now on display at the
Hill Aerospace Museum in the USA. == Closure ==