50th Operations Group
The 50th Operations Group was a subordinate unit of the 50th Space Wing, and assigned to Air Force Space Command from 1991-2019. The group, redesignated as Space Delta 8 on 24 Jul 2020 is stationed at Schriever Space Force Base, previously Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.
The group was activated in January 1941 as the 50th Pursuit Group and began training under Third Air Force. In May 1942 it was reassigned to the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics, where it was a training and test unit as the 50th Fighter Group. The group moved to the European Theater of Operations in the Spring 1944 expansion of Ninth Air Force in England in preparation for Operation Overlord. It few its first combat mission on 1 May 1944. The group moved to France in late June and continued in combat until V-E Day. During combat operations over Western Europe, the unit received two Distinguished Unit Citations. It returned to the United States, where it was inactivated on 7 November 1945.
In June 1949 the group was activated as a reserve unit at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts, where it was a corollary unit of the active duty 33d Fighter Group. In 1950, it became the 50th Fighter-Interceptor Group. The group was called to active duty in connection with the Korean War in June 1950, but was inactivated a few days later and its personnel were transferred to other units.
The group, now designated the 50th Fighter-Bomber Group, was activated in January 1953, when it took over the mission, personnel and equipment of the 140th Fighter-Bomber Group, a Colorado Air National Guard unit that had been federalized for the Korean War. Once the group transitioned from North American F-51 Mustangs to North American F-86 Sabres, it deployed to Germany and Hahn Air Base. It moved to Toul-Rosières Air Base, France in 1956, and was inactivated there in late 1957.
Although the group was renamed the 50th Tactical Fighter Group in 1985, it remained inactive until December 1991, when, as the 50th Operations Group, it took over the personnel of the 1002d Operations Group, which was simultaneously inactivated. Since then until 2020, the group managed a variety of surveillance and communications satellites for the Department of Defense. When it was inactivated on 24 July 2020, its squadrons went to Space Delta 8 and Space Delta 9.
Overview
The 50th Operations Group stood up at Falcon Air Force Base 30 January 1992, the same day as its parent, the 50th Space Wing. Its crews, formerly the crews of the 1002d Operations Group, monitored satellites during launch operations, maneuvered them into proper orbits and maintained their health in space.The group commands, controls and executes launch and early orbit operations, and provides operational support for over 65 satellites which support the president, the Secretary of Defense, other government agencies, and United States and allied military forces. It comprises over 1,100 active duty, reserve, and civilians. It trains the more than 500 system operators that form its space operations crews.
The group's space operations centers track, monitor telemetry and command satellites during launch, early-orbit and on-orbit operations. They resolve anomalies with satellites when they occur and dispose of the satellites when missions are terminated.
History
World War II
Initial training and reinforcement of combat theaters
The group was first activated as the 50th Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, Michigan in January 1941. The group initially consisted of the 10th, 11th and 12th Pursuit Squadrons. It trained with Vultee BT-13 Valiant trainers and second-line Seversky P-35 Guardsman fighters at Selfridge. Although stationed in the geographical region of the Northeast Air District, the group was assigned to the 22d Fighter Wing of the Southeast Air District, located at Hunter Field, Georgia. In September, the group moved to the southeast and Key Field, Mississippi, where it equipped with Curtiss P-40 Warhawks.Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the group's 11th Pursuit Squadron was dispatched to Elmendorf Field to reinforce the defenses of Alaska against Japanese attack, departing on 19 December. The urgency of the need for reinforcements in Alaska was so great that the squadron was picked even though its pilots were untrained on the flight conditions they could expect to experience in Alaska. Two weeks elapsed before the planes reached the Sacramento Air Depot at McClellan Field, California for winterization, and at the end of the month when the 11th was reassigned, none of its planes had left McClellan.
No sooner had the 11th been replaced by the newly activated 81st Pursuit Squadron in mid-January 1942, than the 12th was moved to Christmas Island in the South Pacific Theater. The group was brought up to full strength once again in February, when the 313th Pursuit Squadron was activated and assigned. At Key Field, the group mission was initially the transition training of new graduates of advanced flying training schools in fighter aircraft.
Training and operational testing
While at Key Field, the unit was reassigned to the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics's Fighter Command School and became the 50th Fighter Group as it added the mission of testing new equipment and developing air defense tactics to its training mission.Night fighter combat over the skies of England made the Army Air Forces aware of the need for night air defense training and tactics development. The Air Defense Operational Training Unit was established on 26 March. A few days later this was renamed the Interceptor Command School, then the Fighter Command School. As part of its mission, the group furnished cadres to new night fighter squadrons and its 81st Fighter Squadron conducted night fighter training in Douglas P-70 Havocs. The 81st was assigned the "daunting task" of training sufficient crews to man seventeen night fighter squadrons within twelve months, initially " ith no trained instructor pilots or radar operators, no aircraft, no radar, and no communications equipment". The original night fighter crews were recruited from 27 pilots from the group who were qualified to fly twin-engine aircraft. They attended transition training school at Williams Field, Arizona before returning to Florida.
By the end of September, the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics Night Fighter Department was activated and the 81st Fighter Squadron was detached from the 50th Group and placed under the Department for training and operations. In October 1942, the personnel and equipment of the 81st squadron provided the manpower and equipment for the newly formed 348th and 349th Night Fighter Squadrons, and the squadron was remanned.
In late March 1943, the group moved to Orlando Army Air Base, Florida, where the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics was headquartered, although each of its squadrons was stationed at a different field of the school. In Florida, the group added a fourth unit, the 445th Fighter Squadron, which was activated at Orlando. The dispersed squadrons of the group often operated from unprepared airfields, testing the logistics needed to keep aircraft operating in a theater of operations.
In January 1944, the group's squadrons returned to Orlando as the group began to prepare for its own deployment overseas. The group assumed the look of a typical three squadron fighter group in February when the 445th Squadron moved to Muroc Army Air Field, where it would become a Bell P-59 Airacomet jet fighter squadron, and the 50th Fighter Control Squadron was separated from the group and moved to the European Theater of Operations. The group continued to teach during its preparations, using Republic P-47 Thunderbolts and North American P-51 Mustangs. Simultaneously, the night fighter training program was transferred to Hammer Field, California.
European Theater of Operations
The group departed for the European theater in the middle of March 1944, leaving its Mustangs behind and arriving at its first overseas station, RAF Lymington, in early April 1944 with only Thunderbolts. At Lymington the group became part of IX Air Support Command and its squadrons were assigned fuselage codes T5, 2N and W3. Lymington was a temporary airfield and a prototype for the type of temporary advanced landing grounds which would be built in France after D-Day, when the need for advanced landing fields would become urgent as the Allied forces moved east across France and Germany. Tents were used for billeting and also for support facilities; an access road was built to the existing road infrastructure; a dump for supplies, ammunition, and gasoline drums, along with a drinkable water and minimal electrical grid for communications and station lighting.The group began operations by making a fighter sweep over France on 1 May. It engaged primarily in escort and dive-bombing missions for the next month. The 50th covered the invasion beaches during Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy on 6 and 7 June, and moved to its first Advanced Landing Ground at Carentan, France on 25 June.
Once established on the continent, the 50th attacked bridges, roads, vehicles, railways, trains, gun emplacements, and marshalling yards during the Normandy campaign. It bombed targets in the Saint-Lô region in July and supported the subsequent drive across France. The allied drive was so rapid that in September the group moved over 230 miles from Meautis Airfield in Normandy to Orly Airport, near Paris. It spent only ten days near the City of Lights, however and by the end of the month was at Lyon-Bron Airport, where it was reassigned to XII Tactical Air Command, which had moved from the Mediterranean Theater of Operations following Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. The group assisted in stemming the German offensive in the Saar-Hardt area early in January 1945. The 50th engaged in the offensive that reduced the Colmar Pocket in January and February and supported the drive that breached the Siegfried Line and resulted in the movement of Allied forces into southern Germany in March and April.
In early 1945, the group participated in Operation Clarion, attempting to cut as many rail lines as possible, operating primarily in the area near Strasbourg. The 50th Fighter Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for close cooperation with Seventh Army in March 1945 during the assault on the Siegfried Line. Despite the hazards of enemy opposition and difficult weather conditions, the group struck enemy defenses and isolated battle areas by destroying bridges, communications, supply areas, and ammunition dumps. The 50th received a second Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission on 25 April 1945 when, despite intense flak the group destroyed or damaged many enemy aircraft on an airfield southeast of Munich.
50th Fighter Group
The group ended operations at AAF Station Giebelstadt, Germany in May 1945, and returned to the United States in August. it was assigned to Second Air Force at La Junta Army Air Field, Colorado, where it was inactivated on 7 November 1945.