3rd Wing
The 3rd Wing is a unit of the United States Air Force, assigned to the Pacific Air Forces Eleventh Air Force. It is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.
The Wing is the largest and principal unit within 11th Air Force. A composite organization, it provides air supremacy, surveillance, worldwide airlift, and agile combat support forces to project power and reach.
The wing's 3rd Operations Group is a direct descendant of the 3rd Attack Group, one of the 15 original combat air groups formed by the Army before World War II. The Wing performed reconnaissance and interdiction combat missions from Iwakuni Air Base, Japan, at the beginning of the Korean War.
During the Vietnam War, the wing moved in November 1965 to Bien Hoa Air Base, South Vietnam, a forward operating base, which frequently came under enemy mortar and rocket fire. Missions included close air support, counterinsurgency, forward air control, interdiction, and radar-controlled bombing. Supported numerous ground operations with strike missions against enemy fortifications, supply areas, lines of communication and personnel, in addition to suppressing fire in landing areas.
Today, the 3rd Wing trains and equips an Air Expeditionary Force lead wing composed of more than 6,000 Airmen and E-3G, C-17 and F-22A aircraft.
Overview
The mission of the 3rd Wing is to support and defend U.S. interests in the Asia Pacific region and around the world by providing units who are ready for worldwide air power projection and a base that is capable of meeting United States Pacific Command's theater staging and throughput requirements.The Wing is composed of two groups each with specific functions. The Operations Group controls all flying and airfield operations. The Maintenance Group performs Aircraft and Aircraft support equipment maintenance.
- 3rd Operations Group
- 3rd Maintenance Group
- '''Wing Staff Agencies'''
History
The 3rd Bomb Wing moved to Johnson Air Base, Japan, on 1 April 1950, where it trained in bombardment and reconnaissance. The training switched to night interdiction in June. On 25 June 1950, the Air Force redesignated the 8th, 13th and 90th
as bombardment squadrons. That same day, North Korea invaded South Korea during the early morning hours. President Harry Truman authorized the US Air Force and Navy to support the rapidly retreating South Koreans.
Korean War
When the Korean War broke out in June 1950, the 3rd Wing participated from the first bombing sortie to the very last during the Korean War. The 8th Bombardment Squadron, staging from Iwakuni Air Base on the west coast of Japan, flew the first Air Force mission of the war on 27 June. The squadron struck North Korean ground forces, destroying several tanks and vehicles. Later that day, the 13th Bombardment Squadron attacked the tank column again. Bad weather prevented further attacks for the next two days.The first Americans to lose their lives during the Korean War, First Lieutenant Remer L. Harding and Staff Sergeant William Goodwin, were assigned to the 13th Bomb Squadron, 3rd Bombardment Wing when they died 28 June 1950 returning from a sortie on the Korean Peninsula. President Truman, on 30 June, authorized the Air Force to strike targets in North Korea and, in another first, the 3rd Bombardment Wing launched 16 B-26 Invaders from the 8th and 13th Bombardment Squadrons against Pyongyang Airfield the same day, destroying 25 North Korean aircraft on the ground and damaging another 20. Sergeant Nyle Mickly scored the first aerial victory over North Korea by shooting down a fighter.
On 1 July 1950, the 3rd Bombardment Group moved to Iwakuni Air Base, Japan, where it could be closer to its targets. The wing headquarters remained at Yokota until 1 December 1950, when it joined the group. Initially, the 3rd Bombardment Group operated under the operational control of Fifth Air Force. Control reverted to the wing headquarters on 1 December 1950. The group continued to strike targets in North Korea and fly low-level attacks against advancing North Korean columns. By the end of July, the North Koreans had been forced to stay off the roads during daylight hours. The group switched to night missions in August 1950, flying its jet-black B-26s against North Korean convoys and other targets from its base at Iwakuni. On 15 September 1950, General MacArthur conducted his surprise landing at Incheon, with the ensuing Battle of Inchon cutting off the North Koreans in the south and shifting the initiative to the United Nations forces.
The 731st Bombardment Squadron, a reserve unit called to active duty, joined the group's three squadron in November 1950 and remained until June 1951. Operations continued into 1951 as the defensive lines stabilized following the entry of the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army into the conflict in late 1950. The 3rd Bombardment Group, then back under control of the 3rd Bombardment Wing, continued its night interdiction missions against targets in North Korea.
The 3rd Bombardment Group physically rejoined its parent wing when both moved to Kunsan Air Base, South Korea in August 1951. Colonel Nils O. Odman, who had assumed command of the wing in July, had searchlights mounted on B-26s. The new illumination proved highly effective over the flares that had been used. During the first mission, the wing's B-26 crews succeeded in destroying an entire enemy freight train.
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.
The 3rd Bombardment Wing continued to serve in Korea for the remainder of the war. In recognition of the wing's distinguished service, the 3rd Bombardment Wing's was granted the privilege of conducting the last bombing mission over North Korea minutes before implementation of the Korean Armistice Agreement. At 9:31 pm, 27 July 1953, as midnight approached for the cease-fire to take effect, the 8th Bombardment Squadron bombed a troop concentration in North
Korea.
When the 3rd Bombardment Wing's units completed their war tour in Korea, they had racked up a record that included the first and last bombing missions of the war. The squadrons had flown 33,220 sorties, destroyed 31,026 vehicles, 337 locomotives, 2,920 boxcars, 116 bridges, and 529 buildings, and cut 918 roads and 841 rail lines.
Cold War
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 Air Base, Japan. In late 1955, the 3rd Bombardment Group received its first Martin B-57B Canberra Night Intruder and began to convert from the B-26.The 3rd Bombardment Group was reduced to one officer and an enlisted man on 13 August 1956, essentially becoming a paper organization. The wing headquarters assumed direct control over the 8th, 13th, and 90th Bombardment Squadrons. Finally,
the Air Force inactivated the 3rd Bombardment Group on 25 October 1957, as part of a reorganization plan that created wing deputy commanders for various functional areas and gave wing commanders more direct control over their units. While the group ceased to exist after 36 years of service, its proud heritage, in the form of its emblem and battle honors remained with the 3rd Bombardment Wing.
The B-57Bs suffered from engine malfunctions which filled up the cockpit with toxic fumes, which led to a brief grounding. The USAF was not very happy with the B-57B as it was initially produced. It was still deemed to be inadequate to meet the night intruder and close support role for which it had originally been designed. In August 1958, mainland Chinese forces began bombarding the Nationalist-held island of Quemoy. The 3rd BG stood by in Japan to strike strategic targets in China, North Korea and possibly even the Soviet Union should the crisis escalate out of control. Fortunately, the crisis soon cooled and hostilities were averted.
However, the USAF began to re-equip its B-57 wings with the supersonic F-100 Super Sabre tactical fighter-bomber. As the active duty USAF TAC bomb groups were re-equipped, their aircraft were transferred to the Air National Guard. By 1959 the 3rd Bomb Wing was the last unit equipped with the B-57A, its primary mission being a SIOP to perform "Quick Strikes" against strategic targets on the mainland of Communist China, North Korea and the Eastern Soviet Union. As nuclear weapons could not be stored in Japan, the B-57s were forward deployed to Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, where they stood nuclear alert.
With nuclear-armed B-57Bs ready to be launched against pre-programmed targets within fifteen minutes, alerts lasted 30 days at a time, but soon changed to a two-week rotation schedule from Yokota Air Base as each of the three squadrons of the 3rd took their turn rotating crews. In 1961, Air Defense Command sent F-102 Delta Daggers to the 3rd, where the 40th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron flew air defense missions over Japan for a six-month TDY.
In late 1963, the 3rd Bomb Wing prepared to stand down in Japan as the USAF wanted to reduce the number of wings in Japan. Although the Wing would be inactivated, two of the B-57 squadrons, the 8th and the 13th were transferred to the direct control of the 41st Air Division and later to the 2nd Air Division at Yokota where they continued the South Korean nuclear alert mission as the USAF mulled over the fate of the B-57B. However, the increasing demands for aircraft in South Vietnam for use in the escalating conflict with North Vietnam caused the Air force to reconsider the inactivation. The aircraft to be moved to Clark Air Base, Philippines under Thirteenth Air Force.
In January 1964 the wing was re designated as the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, and moved without personnel or equipment to England Air Force Base, Louisiana under Tactical Air Command.
The 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing kept the 90th Bombardment Squadron, now redesignated as a tactical fighter squadron, and gained the 416th, 510th and 531st Tactical Fighter Squadrons. While at England, the wing was brought up to full strength and transitioned into flying primarily North American F-100D/F Super Sabres.