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| 3d Wing | |
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 3d Wing emblem |
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| Active | 1919-present |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Role | Fighter / Command & Control / Airlift |
| Part of | Pacific Air Forces |
| Garrison/HQ | Elmendorf Air Force Base |
| Motto | NON SOLUM ARMIS Not by Arms Alone |
| Engagements |
    
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| Decorations |  PUC AFOUA w/ V Device ROK PUC RVGC w/ Palm |
The United States Air Force's 3d Wing is the host wing for Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. It is the largest and principal organization in the Pacific Air Forces Eleventh Air Force.
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Mission
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This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (October 2008) |
The mission of the 3d Wing is to support and defend U.S. interests in the region and around the world by providing units who are ready for worldwide air power projection and a base that is capable of meeting PACOM's theater staging and throughput requirements.
The 3d Wing provides air superiority and defense for Alaska. The wing supports the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region mission and flexible alert concept by deploying aircraft and crews to Galena and King Salmon airports periodically. These forward operating bases allow the F-15s a quicker response time on identifying aircraft approaching North American airspace. At Elmendorf, the aircraft stand alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In addition, the 3d Wing supports Pacific Air Forces in the Pacific Command area of responsibility.
Units assigned
The 3d Wing is composed of four groups each with specific functions. The Operations Group controls all flying and airfield operations. The Maintenance Group performs Aircraft and Aircraft support equipment maintenance. The Mission Support Group has a wide range of responsibilities but a few of its functions are Security, Civil Engineering, Communications, Personnel Management, Logistics, Services and Contracting support. While the Medical Group provides medical and dental care.
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3d Operations Group (Tail Code: AK)
3d Maintenance Group
Wing Staff Agencies |
3d Mission Support Group
3d Medical Group
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The 3d Wing operates the F-22 Raptor, F-15C/D Eagle, E-3 Sentry, C-17 Globemaster III, and C-12F Huron.
History
Lineage
- Organized as Army Surveillance Group on 1 Jul 1919
- Redesignated: 1 Surveillance Group on 15 Aug 1919
- Redesignated: 3 Group (Attack) on 15 Sep 1921
- Redesignated: 3 Attack Group on 25 Jan 1923
- Redesignated: 3 Bombardment Group (Light) on 15 Sep 1939
- Redesignated: 3 Bombardment Group (Dive) on 28 Sep 1942
- Redesignated: 3 Bombardment Group (Light) on 25 May 1943
- Redesignated: 3 Bombardment Group, Light on 14 Feb 1944
- Established as 3 Bombardment Wing, Light and activated on 10 Aug 1948
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- 3 Bombardment Group assigned as subordinate unit to wing
- Redesignated: 3 Bombardment Wing, Tactical on 1 Oct 1955
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- 3 Bombardment Group inactivated on 25 Oct 1957
- Redesignated: 3 Tactical Fighter Wing on 8 Jan 1964
- Redesignated: 3 Wing on 19 Dec 1991
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- 3 Operations Group activated and assigned to wing as subordinate unit 1 Dec 1991
Assignments
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Components
Groups
- 3 Bombardment (later, 3 Operations): 18 Aug 1948-25 Oct 1957 (detached 20 Jul-30 Nov 1950); 19 Dec 1991-.
- 71 Reconnaissance: attached 31 Oct 1947-18 Aug 1948.
Squadrons
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Bases assigned
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Aircraft operated
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Source for lineage, assignments, components, stations and aircraft assigned:1
Overview
The United States Army Air Service emerged from World War I with three distinct missions, pursuit, bomber, and attack/observation. These organizations became today's 1st Fighter Wing, 2d Bomb Wing, and 3d Wing. Including squadrons active in World War I (the 19th and 90th Fighter Squadrons) the 3d Wing and its organizations have participated in virtually every major U.S. conflict of the 20th century.
As the first organized attack group to form within the Army Air Service, the 3d Attack Group was instrumental in developing close air support doctrine in the inter-war period. The group pioneered dive bombing, skip-bombing, and parafrag attacks in the 1920s--the earliest forms of precision guided attack from aircraft--and put this work to good use in World War II.
Notable alumni include General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, General Jimmy Doolittle, General Lewis Brereton, General Richard Ellis, General John Henebry, General Paul I. "Pappy" Gunn, and General Nathan Twining.
As an attack bomber group during World War II and the Korean War, the wing was honored by the selfless service of two posthumous Medal of Honor recipients, Major Raymond H. Wilkins and Captain John S. Walmsley.
Interwar years
The 3d Group and its successor 3rd Wing have served the United States on a continuing basis since the group's activation as the Army Surveillance Group on 1 July 1919. In August 1919 the Air Service organized its first seven groups and it became the 1st Surveillance Group. Initially the group used Airco DH-4B's to patrol the border from Brownsville, Texas, to Nogales, Arizona, as revolution and disorder had broken out in Mexico, resulting in border violations and the killing of American citizens.
Operational squadrons of the group during the interwar years were***:
- 8th (assigned 1919)
- 13th (assigned November 1929)
- 90th (assigned 1919)
In a functional redesignation of Air Service groups, the unit was redesignated as the 3d Attack Group in 1921. It participated in maneuvers, tested new equipment, experimented with tactics, flew in aerial reviews, patrolled the United States–Mexico border (1929), and carried Airmail (1934) flying a wide variety of biplanes (DH-4, XB-1A, GA-1, A-3).
On March 1, 1935, the Army Air Corps formed the first centralized control of its combat striking units within the United States under the General Headquarter Air Force. The 3rd Attack Group moved to Barksdale Field, Louisiana, as part of the 3rd Wing commanded by Col. Gerald Brant, together with the 20th Pursuit Group. Aircraft assigned to the 3rd Attack Group were the Curtiss A-12 Shrike in 1935 and the Northrup A-17/A-17A Nomad in 1937.
The commander of the 3d Attack Group, Lt. Col. Horace Meek Hickam, was killed on November 5, 1934, when the A-12 he was piloting (33-250) crashed while landing at Fort Crockett, Texas. Hickam Field was named in his honor. Some A-12s were still at Hickam Field on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked, however, none of the aircraft saw any combat. The A-12 was withdrawn from service soon after.
The A-17s were was fairly fast and had a fairly heavy forward-firing armament for its time, and during 1938-39 war games it was deemed to be the most effective ground attack aircraft yet devised. However the career of the A-17 with the Army was quite brief. After only three years of service with the Army, the A-17As were declared surplus In 1940, the unit was redesignated as the 3d Bombardment Group (Light), being reequipped with the Boeing B-18 Bolo and B-12 bombers and reassigned to Savannah Airfield, Georgia.
Note:*** The 8th Aero Squadron was organized on 21 June 1917; the 13th Aero Squadron on 14 June 1917, and the 90th Aero Squadron on 20 August 1917 by the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps. These squadrons served in combat during World War I prior to their assignment to the 3d.
World War II
The 3d Group served in combat in the Pacific Theater of Operations from 1 April 1942 until V-J Day. It was reassigned to Australia early in 1942 and became part of Fifth Air Force. Redesignated 3d Bombardment Group (Dive) in September 1942, being equipped with the The Douglas A-20 Havoc and the Douglas A-24 Dive Bombers. In May 1943, the group was re-equipped with the North American B-25 Mitchell and was redesignated as the 3d Bombardment Group (Light).
World War II squadrons of the 3d Bomb Group were:
- 8th Bombardment
- 13th Bombardment
- 89th Bombardment (1941-1946)
- 90th Bombardment
The group had its headquarters in Australia until January 1943, but its squadrons operated from forward locations in New Guinea, bombing and strafing enemy airfields, supply lines, installations, and shipping as the Allies halted the Japanese drive toward Port Moresby and drove the enemy back from Buna to Lae. At the end of that campaign, group headquarters moved to New Guinea.
For the next year and a half the group continued to serve in the Southwest Pacific, where it played an important role in the offensives in which the Allies pushed along the northern coast of New Guinea, taking Salamaua, Lae, Hollandia, Wakde, Biak, and Noemfoor. In March 1943 it took part in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, which ended Japanese attempts to send convoys to Lae. In August 1943, when Fifth Air Force struck airfields at Wewak to neutralize Japanese airpower that threatened the advance of Allied forces in New Guinea, the group made an attack in the face of intense antiaircraft fire on 17 August, destroyed or damaged many enemy planes, and won a Distinguished Unit Citation for the mission.
In the fall of 1943 the group struck Japanese naval and air power at Rabaul to support the assaults on Bougainville and New Britain. In an attack on shipping at Simpson Harbor, New Britain, on 2 November 1943, the 3d Group encountered heavy opposition from enemy fighters and from antiaircraft batteries on the ships. In that attack Major Raymond H. Wilkins, commander of the 8th Squadron, sank two ships before he was shot down as he deliberately drew the fire of a destroyer so that other planes of his squadron could withdraw safely - an action for which Maj Wilkins was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
The group moved to the Philippines late in 1944. Equipped with A-20's, it bombed and strafed airfields; supported ground forces on Mindoro, Luzon, and Mindanao; attacked industries and railways on Formosa; and struck shipping along the China coast.
The group moved to Okinawa early in August 1945 and flew some missions to Japan before the war ended. Moved to Japan in September 1945 and, as part of U.S. Far East Air Forces, became part of the army of occupation.
Cold War
Korean War
After the formal independence of the United States Air Force on 18 September, 1947, the former USAAF groups were realigned into a new wing structure; the 3d Attack Group became the 3d Bombardment Wing (Light, Attack).
Flying Douglas A-26 Invaders (after 1948, the B-26) the 3d Wing participated from the first bombing sortie to the very last during the Korean War. Operational B-26 squadrons of the wing during the Korean War were:
- 8th Bombardment Squadron (September 1947 - August 1956)
- 13th Bombardment Squadron (September 1947 - August 1956)
- 731st Bombardment Squadron (December 1950 - Inactivated June 1951)
Redesignated: 90th Bombardment Squadron (June 1951 - August 1956)
The first Americans to lose their lives during the Korean War, 1Lt. Remer L. Harding and SSgt. William Goodwin, were assigned to the 13th Bomb Squadron, 3d Bombardment Wing when they lost their lives 28 June 1950 returning from a sortie on the Korean Peninsula. Captain John S. Walmsley, Jr. was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on 14 September 1951: flying a night mission in a B-26, Capt Walmsley discovered and attacked an enemy supply train, and after exhausting his ammunition he flew at low altitude to direct other aircraft to the same objective; the train was destroyed but Walmsley's plane crashed in the target area.
In recognition of the wing's distinguished service, the 3d Bombardment Wing's was granted the privilege of conducting the last bombing mission over North Korea minutes before implementation of the ceasefire of 27 July 1953.
Japan
With the war over in Korea, wing returned to the routine of peacetime duty in the Cold War environment. It remained at Kunsan Air Base until October 1954, when it moved to Johnson AB, Japan. Beginning in January 1956, the 3d Bombardment Group converted from the B-26 to the Martin B-57B Canberra Night Intruder. Operational squadrons of the wing were:
- 8th Bombardment Squadron (August 1956 - January 1964) (B-57)
- 13th Bombardment Squadron (August 1956 - January 1964) (B-57)
- 90th Bombardment Squadron (August 1956 - January 1964) (B-57)
In November 1960, the 3d Bombardment Wing moved to Yokota Air Base where it continued to train in bombardment, reconnaissance and aerial refueling operations. The wing also stood nuclear alert with its B-57s along with the 40th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (December 1961 - May 1962) equipped with the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger for air defense.
Vietnam
In January 1964 the wing was redesignated as the 3d Tactical Fighter Wing, and was reassigned w/p/o/e to England AFB, Louisiana. It was part of an overall effort to reduce the number of wings in Japan. At the same time, the wing gave up its B-57s, becoming the last bombardment wing to fly the medium bomber. The move also ended the long association with the 8th and 13th Bombardment Squadrons and nearly 22 years of active duty in the Far East.
At England, the wing transitioned into flying primarily North American F-100D/F Super Sabres. It was deployed to Bien Hoa AB, South Vietnam from 1965-1970. During the Vietnam War, the wing flew thousands of sorties in support of allied forces. Operational F-100 squadrons of the wing were:
- 90th Tactical Fighter Squadron (June 1964 - November 1965, February 1968 - October 1970) (Tailcode: CR, Blue tail stripe)
- 510th Tactical Fighter Squadron (March 1964 - November 1969) (Tailcode: CE, Purple tail stripe)
- 531st Tactical Fighter Squadron (June 1964 - July 1970) (Tailcode: CP, Red tail stripe)
The 3d also supported one B-57 light bomb squadron at Bien Hoa:
- 8th Bombardment Squadron/Attack Squadron (November 1969 - September 1970) (B-57B) (Tailcode: PQ)
The 8th BS/AS was reassigned from the 35th TFW at Da Nang Air Base, then was redesignated as the 8th Special Operations Squadron and reassigned to Phan Rang Air Base with A-37Bs.
In late 1969 the F-100s of the 3d TFW began a phaseout at Bien Hoa. The 510th TFS was deactivated on 15 November 1969, the 531st TFS on 31 July 1970. The 90th TFS was redesignated the 90th Attack Squadron on 15 November 1969 and was re-equipped with A-37Bs and assigned to the 4th Special Operations Wing at Nha Trang Air Base on 31 October 1970.
Philippines
After its withdrawal from Southeast Asia in 1971, the wing transitioned to the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and moved to Kunsan AB South Korea with two tactical fighter squadrons (35th, 36th TFS), the scene of much of its success during the Korean War. By 1974, the wing moved to Clark AB, Republic of the Philippines, helping that nation transform into a stable democracy. At Clark, the wing operated the following fighter squadrons with the tail code "PN" :
- 3d Tactical Fighter Squadron (December 1975 - December 1991) (F-4E)
- 90th Tactical Fighter Squadron (September 1974 - May 1991) (F-4E/G)
- 26th Tactical Fighter/Training Aggressor (September 1974 - October 1988) (F-4E "PN", F-5E (no tail code))
Note: F-4Es transferred to 3d TFS December 1975. Squadron redesignated January 1976 and equipped with F-5E aircraft.
The Wing deployed six F-4Es to Turkey for Operation Desert Storm in early 1991 where they flew some of that aircraft's last combat sorties.
Alaska
The wing remained at Clark AB, though treaty negotiations with the Philippines broke down, and it was decided to move the 3d Wing beginning in 1992-93. The Mount Pinatubo eruption in June 1991 changed these plans and forced the wing's hasty relocation w/p/o/e to Elmendorf AFB, Alaska on 19 December 1991, where it replaced the 21st Wing which previously was the host organization for Elemendorf. With the reassignment, the wing was also redesigned as the 3d Wing and was realigned to the multi-mission objective wing concept.
Today, the 3d Wing continues to grow in size and importance because of its strategic location and training facilities. It commands and controls fighter, airlift, AWACS squadrons in addition to the expansive Cope Thunder exercises, formerly conducted in the Philippines. The exercises were relocated to ranges near Eielson AFB, and regularly hosts visiting wings as well as participates in the exercises.
Today, the 3d Wing now has responsibilities far beyond the vast borders of Alaska.
Yukla 27 crash
On 22 September 1995, tragedy struck the AWACS community. An E-3 AWACS aircraft, tail number 77-0354, call sign Yukla 27 crashed at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, minutes after takeoff. The crash resulted in the deaths of twenty-two Air Force and two Canadian Air Force aircrew members stunning the members of the AWACS community. A flock of Canada geese caused foreign object damage to the E-3 bringing about the crash. The catastrophic event marked the first loss of a US Air Force AWACS aircraft to accident or enemy action. The term “Yukla” has its origins in Alaskan dialect meaning “Eagle.” All 962d Airborne Air Control Squadron flights carry this call sign. The cockpit voice recording of the incident became part of the script of a play called Charlie Victor Romeo.2
Death of wing commander
On July 27, 2008, the wing's commander, Brigadier General Thomas L. Tinsley, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a handgun. It was unclear whether the shot was an accident or a suicide. Tinsley had served as the wing commander since May 2007. He was succeeded by Colonel Thomas W. Bergeson.34
See also
References
 |
This article incorporates text from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website which, as a United States government publication, is in the public domain. |
- This article contains information from the 3d Wing history factsheet which is an official document of the United States Government and is presumed to be in the public domain.
Notes
- ^ USAFHRA Orgazational Records Branch, 3d Wing, 3d Operations Group
- ^ http://www.af.mil/news/airman/1297/bash.htm Air Force News article on Yukla 27
- ^ O'Malley, Julia, "Gunshot Kills Elmendorf Wing Commander", Anchorage Daily News, July 29, 2008, Pg. 1.
- ^ United States Air Force, "BRIGADIER GENERAL THOMAS L. TINSLEY", Air Force Link, February 2008.
Bibliography
- Cortesi, Lawerence. Grim Reapers: History of the 3rd Bomb Group, 1918-1965. Temple City, California: Historical Aviation Album, 1985.
- Martin, Patrick. Tail Code: The Complete History of USAF Tactical Aircraft Tail Code Markings. Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Military Aviation History, 1994. ISBN 0-88740-513-4.
- Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1983. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.
- Ravenstein, Charles A. Air Force Combat Wings Lineage and Honors Histories, 1947-1977. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1984. ISBN 0-91279-912-9.
External links
- USAAS-USAAC-USAAF-USAF Aircraft Serial Numbers--1908 to present
- ArmyAirForces.com
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