Korean War The 37th was established on 3 March 1953 as the
United States Air Force 37th Fighter-Bomber Wing as part of the buildup on the Air Force due to the
Korean War. It was assigned to
Ninth Air Force of
Tactical Air Command and was activated on 8 April 1953 at
Clovis Air Force Base, New Mexico. Although activated, the
wing was neither manned nor equipped and it was inactivated on 25 June as a result of the Armistice in Korea and the subsequent need for deployment to the war zone being unnecessary. The wing was activated at the newly built
Phù Cát Air Base, South Vietnam and it was assigned to
Pacific Air Forces. It was organized on 1 March 1967 and assigned to
Seventh Air Force. Personnel for the wing headquarters and tactical components were in transit from the United States and elsewhere, and tactical operations did not commence until mid-April. •
561st Tactical Fighter Squadron: 30 March 1981 – 5 October 1989 (Yellow Tail Stripe) •
562d Tactical Fighter Training Squadron: 30 March 1981 – 5 October 1989 (Blue Tail Stripe) • 563rd Tactical Fighter Squadron (red tail stripe) As the only "Wild Weasel" training wing in the world, it provided instructor pilots and qualified aircrews for the other two "Wild Weasel" wings in the Philippines and West Germany. As part of the training mission, the wing participated in numerous tactical, maritime, and electronic warfare exercises locally and worldwide in hunter/killer tactics, suppression of enemy air defenses, force escort operations and dissimilar air combat training with
Air National Guard and
Air Force Reserve squadrons, and various allies. Wing aircrews and ground personnel won the United States Air Force Worldwide Fighter gunnery meet in 1985 and 1987. In early 1988, Panama's military dictator, Gen. Manuel Noriega, had been indicted by two Florida grand juries on charges of laundering drug money. He laughed off the charges and dismissed Panama's president in February. During the May 1989 presidential election campaign, Noriega's "Dignity Battalion" goon squad beat up opposition candidate
Guillermo Endara. Endara won the election, but on 1 October, Noriega prevented him from taking office. Two days later, a coup attempt was made but collapsed when loyalist
Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) rescued Noriega. The coup leaders were executed the following day. On 15 December, Noriega declared a state of war between the United States and Panama. The following evening, PDF soldiers killed a marine lieutenant and arrested a navy lieutenant. The Lieutenant and his wife had witnessed the shooting. The officer was beaten and his wife was threatened with sexual abuse. In response to these events, President
George H. W. Bush issued orders to invade Panama. One of the targets was the Battalion 2000 barracks at
Rio Hato Airfield.
United States Army Rangers were to be dropped at the adjoining airfield. The PDF troops would have to be neutralized before the airdrop. Army Lt. Gen. Carl W. Stiner, the XVIII Airborne Corps commander, requested F-117As be used. The F-117s would not bomb the two barracks, but rather the 2,000-pound LBGs with time-delay fuses would be directed to aim points near the buildings. They would act as "a giant stun grenade," to confuse the PDF troops without killing them. The use of F-117As was based on their night-bombing accuracy, rather than stealth, as the PDF lacked heavy air defenses. On the night of 19 December 1989, six F-117As from the 415th TFS took off from TTR Airport. The flight would require five in-flight refuelings. Two of the planes were targeted on Rio Hato Airfield, two more were to provide support for an attempt to capture Noriega, and the final pair were in-flight spares should any of the others suffer malfunctions. As the two F-117As approached the release point, a moment of confusion occurred that would mar their debut. The original plan was for the lead plane to drop its bomb in a field near the barracks on the left, while his wingman would drop his bomb in a field near a barracks on the right. Just before the drop, the wind direction changed. One bomb, intended to land about 100 yards from the 7th Company barracks, actually landed 260 yards away. This was only 18 yards from the 6th Company barracks, which was too close. The other bomb impacted near a basketball court, about 40 yards farther from the barracks than intended. Despite these problems, the explosions caused the desired confusion. Initial reports spoke of PDF soldiers running around in their underwear, while others threw down their weapons. Several Rangers were killed in the subsequent firefight, but the airfield was taken and U.S. aircraft were landing within two hours. However, it was revealed three months later that one of the bombs had missed its target by a considerable amount. It seems that there had been some mis-communication in the final stages of the mission planning, and the pilot had been given the wrong coordinates for the target. However, the media jumped on this event and concluded that the F-117A had been a failure on its first mission. On 21 April 1990, stung perhaps by the press criticism, the Pentagon released more information on the F-117A. More photos of better quality were released, and at
Nellis Air Force Base there was a public display of two F-117As.
1991 Gulf War , Virginia, prior to being deployed to Saudi Arabia for
Operation Desert Shield Less than a year after the wing saw combat in Panama, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the 415th Squadron deployed to
King Khalid International Airport, Saudi Arabia on 19 August to provide air defense over the Saudi capital of
Riyadh. In November 1990, President Bush ordered
United States Central Command to prepare for offensive operations against Iraq after negotiations with President
Saddam Hussein of Iraq were at an impasse. The 416th Squadron deployed from Tonopah on 1 December 1990 and in January 1991, a portion of the 417th Squadron also deployed to Saudi Arabia. In spite of the massive Coalition buildup, Saddam Hussein of Iraq refused to withdraw his troops from Kuwait. In the early morning of 17 January 1991, the
United States Central Command Air Forces along with air forces from Coalition nations began an air offensive to remove Iraqi troops from Kuwait. F-117A Nighthawk stealth bombers, flying from Saudi Arabia, were the first aircraft to engage in offensive operations. The stealth technology of the plane allowed it to fly directly to the Iraqi capital of
Baghdad without detection. Mission planners had assigned critical strategic Iraqi command and control installations to the F-117s, counting on the aircraft's ability to hit precisely at well-defended targets without being seen or detected by Iraqi air defenses. Other vital targets included key communications centers, research and development facilities for nuclear and chemical weapons, plus hardened aircraft shelters on Iraqi airfields. On the first night of combat operations, an F-117A dropped a 2000-pound laser-guided
GBU-27 Paveway III bomb right through the roof of the general communications building in downtown Baghdad. In another attack on the communications building next to the
Tigris River, another GBU-27 Paveway III was dropped through an air shaft in the center of the roof atop the building and blew out all four walls. During the first three weeks of the air offensive, F-117As obliterated many hardened targets with unprecedented precision. The 37th TFW flew 1271 combat sorties and maintained an 85.5 percent mission-capable rate. The 43 F-117As of the 37th TFW dropped more than 2000 tons of precision ordnance and attacked some 40 percent of the high-value targets that were struck by the Coalition forces. Not one F-117A was hit, shot down, or lost to mechanical failure. There is no evidence that the F-117A was ever detected or tracked by Iraqi radar installations, either ground or airborne. After combat operations ceased in February 1991, some wing personnel and aircraft remained on indefinite alert in Saudi Arabia as a component member of the post-Desert Storm task force in Southwest Asia, although most returned to Tonopah by the end of March.
F-117 transfer to Holloman AFB After Desert Storm, the 37th transitioned to the Air Force Objective Wing organization, and the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing was redesignated the 37th Fighter Wing on 1 October 1991. As a result of the end of the
Cold War, reduced defense budgets were the order of the day. In reviewing its tactical bases and the costs of maintaining them, It was determined that the operations from Tonopah required considerable logistics support via commercial air and trucking. All military personnel were permanently assigned to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and were transported once each week by air. Also the security requirements of the F-117A had been lessened with its introduction into the Air Force inventory as an operational weapons system. It was determined that a considerable amount of money would be saved by moving the F-117 operations out of the remote site at Tonopah. Tactical Air Command also believed, while Tonopah Airport was adequate for testing and development of aircraft, it was unsuitable as a fully operational tactical base. Also, the Air Force wanted to retire the
F-15A/B Eagles operated by the
49th Fighter Wing at
Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, most of which were manufactured in the mid-1970s and were costing more and more to operate. As a result, plans were put in place to construct suitable facilities for the F-117A at Holloman and to retire the F-15A/B models of the 49th. There was also debate about which unit designation would be adopted at Holloman. The 37th was a senior organization to the 49th, and initially it was announced that the 49th would be inactivated and the 37th would become the new host unit at Holloman. This was changed when General
Merrill McPeak, USAF Chief of Staff, determined that the 49th had a more notable history than the 37th, would remain active and the 37th would be inactivated. On 8 July 1992, shortly after the inactivation of Tactical Air Command and the activation of
Air Combat Command, the assets of the 37th Fighter Wing were moved to Holloman and was it was inactivated; the aircraft, personnel, equipment and mission being transferred to the 49th Fighter Wing.
Air Education and Training Command However, the inactivation was of short duration. On 1 July 1993, HQ USAF redesignated
Air Training Command as
Air Education and Training Command (AETC). At the same time, HQ AETC replaced all of its training centers with numbered wings. As a result, the 37th was redesignated the
37th Training Wing and activated at
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. It replaced the Lackland Training Center and most of its units that had performed the training mission since 1949. Assigned to the 37th Training Wing were five group-level establishments. • 37th Technical Training Group • 37th Military Training Group • Defense Language Institute English Language Center • 37th Support Group • 37th Logistics Group Additional changes came on 1 April 1994 when HQ USAF redesignated the technical training group as the 37th Training Group and the military training group as the 737th Training Group. The 37th also inherited a fourth training mission, one which the Lackland Training Center had gained on 2 June 1993, when the Air Force decided to make Lackland the permanent home of the
Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA). The academy had brought its technical training mission to Lackland in August 1992 from the hurricane-wrecked Homestead AFB in Florida. The Inter-American Air Forces Academy had trained officer and enlisted members of various air forces in Latin America since its organization in the Panama Canal Zone on 31 October 1948. On 1 July 1993, IAAFA was reassigned to the 37th Training Wing. While the wing gained IAAFA's technical training missions, it lost the officer training mission which AETC reassigned to the
Air University on 1 July 1993 and shortly thereafter moved to
Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. The wing also gained extensive technical training courses from two closing bases —
Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois and
Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado. The courses consisted of much of the Air Force's training for base support and operations. As the new courses began to come on line in 1993, the wing's technical trainee accessions grew significantly. In 1994, technical training entries almost reached 20,000, while basic military training remained at its pre-1986 level of about 35,000. In 1995, the wing reached near parity between basic military and technical training missions in terms of members trained. In 2016, the 937th Training Group, the Air Force component of the
Medical Education and Training Campus located at
Fort Sam Houston, was replaced by the 59th Training Group, part of the
59th Medical Wing. The 937th Training Group was reactivated in 2025. ==Lineage==