16th Bombardment Operational Training Wing


The 540th Combat Crew Training Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last active in 1946 at Colorado Springs, assigned to Continental Air Forces. The wing was first activated in the pre-World War II buildup of the United States Army Air Corps, but was inactivated in 1942 and its personnel used as the cadre for another unit. The wing was activated the following year as the 16th Bombardment Training Wing, and controlled Operational Training Units for heavy bombers, and later very heavy bombers. Following the end of the war, it was inactivated. In 1985, it was redesignated, but has remained inactive since then.

History

Prewar

The 16th Bombardment Wing was first activated at Langley Field, Virginia, in December 1940 as part of the expansion of the Air Corps in response to the war in Europe. Its operational components, the 45th and 46th Bombardment Groups, were assigned in January 1941. It moved to Bowman Field, Kentucky, in the spring of 1941. In September 1941, the wing was inactivated and its personnel used to form the 5th [Air Support Command].

Operational Training Unit

The wing was again activated on 23 June 1942 at Wendover Field, Utah, replacing the inactivating 102nd Bombardment Wing. The 16th Wing was responsible for the supervision and control of the operational training of heavy bombardment groups during the second phase of their operational training. The 16th Wing inherited control from the 102nd Wing of Walla Walla Army Air Field, Ephrata Army Air Field and Geiger Field in Washington; Muroc Army Air Field in California as well as Wendover.
The 16th Wing controlled the training of the following units, which on completion moved to the 17th Bombardment Wing for third phase training.
Two groups, the 330th Bombardment Group at Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico and the 331st Bombardment Group at Casper Army Air Field, Wyoming, provided second phase training to Replacement Combat Crews.
On 2 November 1942, the Second Air Force reorganized its bombardment training. From that date its wings controlled new bombardment groups from their activation until completion of operational training. The wing also assumed responsibility for training replacement combat crews. With this reorganization the 16th Bombardment Training Wing now controlled Operational Training Units at Clovis Army Air Field, New Mexico, Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona; Kearney Army Air Field, Nebraska and Alamogordo Army Air Field, New Mexico. It also was assigned Replacement Control Centers at Pueblo Army Air Field, Colorado and Biggs Field, Texas. It was assigned the following OTU groups to conduct training:
The wing mission changed to very heavy bombardment group training, which lasted until operations ceased in late 1945. It moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where it was a paper unit until inactivating in 1946.

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