508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing
Encyclopedia
The 508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing (508 ASW) is a wing
of the United States Air Force
based out of Hill Air Force Base
, Utah
.
The 508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing provides sustainment of existing systems as well as the acquisition of new and improved airpower capabilities. It serves all U.S. military services, civil agencies and multiple foreign countries. Support includes acquisition, modifications, modernization, engineering and technical, as well as maintenance, repair and planning.
The units heritage and lineage begins with the World War II
508th Fighter Group, which provided air defense of the Hawaiian Islands
late in the war. During the Cold War
, the Strategic Air Command
508th Fighter Escort Wing provided fighter escort for SAC strategic bombers in the 1950s; and the 508th Tactical Fighter Group trained Air Force Reserve pilots in "Wild Weasel" SAM suppression tactics in the 1970s.
, Colorado
. The group trained with P-47 Thunderbolt
aircraft to provide very-long-range escort for B-29 Superfortress
bombardment units in the Pacific Theater.
The lack of significant Japanese fighter defense by late 1944 caused a change of mission and the group was reassigned to Seventh Air Force
in Hawaii in January 1945 and served as part of the defense force for the islands. In Hawaii, the group also trained replacement pilots for other organizations, repaired P-47's and P-51's received from combat units, and ferried aircraft to forward areas.
The unit was inactivated in Hawaii on 25 November 1945 when it replaced by the 15th Fighter Group
.
in 1952. Its mission was to provide fighter escort for B-29 and B-50, and later B-36 intercontinental bombers. The Strategic Air Command was founded by men who had flown bombing raids against Germany during World War II
. They usually encountered swarms of enemy fighters and knew the importance of having fighter escorts.
Advances in technology soon made fighter-escort wings obsolete. A single atomic bomb had more explosive power than all the bombs dropped during all of World War II, so only one of them could certainly destroy a target far more effectively than the large mass formations of World War II B-17s and B-24s. Thus SAC's missions were based on the use of an individual airplane, not a formation of them.
During its first postwar decade (1945–1955), SAC flew many B-29s left over from the war and later propeller-driven B-50
s and B-36s. They were soon replaced by new jet bombers, the B-47 and B-52. The jet bombers flew so fast and so high that they were virtually immune from fighters. Plus the early jet F-84s and F-86s in SAC's fighter inventory couldn't keep up with them. The fighter-escort wings were no longer necessary, so they were either inactivated or assigned to other commands.
The wing deployed at Misawa AB, Japan, with the 319th Air Division to provide air defense, Feb~May 1953 and Feb~May 1954. It was inactivated on 11 May 1956.
Reactivated as a Tactical Air Command
reserve group at Hill AFB, Utah in 1973 when the Air Force Reserve modernization program added fighter aircraft which resulted in the unit being activated as the 508th Tactical Fighter Group and being assigned F-105 Thunderchief aircraft which were returned from inactivated units being withdrawn from combat in Southeast Asia. Trained in Wild Weasel SAM suppression tactics. The unit changed from a group to a wing, inactivated, and the personnel and equipment were absorbed by the activating 419th Tactical Fighter Wing
.
Wing (air force unit)
Wing is a term used by different military aviation forces for a unit of command. The terms wing, group or Staffel are used for different-sized units from one country or service to another....
of the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
based out of Hill Air Force Base
Hill Air Force Base
Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force Base located in northern Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and near the towns of Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, Sunset, and Layton. It is about north of Salt Lake City. The base was named in honor of Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
The 508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing provides sustainment of existing systems as well as the acquisition of new and improved airpower capabilities. It serves all U.S. military services, civil agencies and multiple foreign countries. Support includes acquisition, modifications, modernization, engineering and technical, as well as maintenance, repair and planning.
The units heritage and lineage begins with the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
508th Fighter Group, which provided air defense of the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
late in the war. During the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, the Strategic Air Command
Strategic Air Command
The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
508th Fighter Escort Wing provided fighter escort for SAC strategic bombers in the 1950s; and the 508th Tactical Fighter Group trained Air Force Reserve pilots in "Wild Weasel" SAM suppression tactics in the 1970s.
Units
- 526th ICBM Systems Group526th ICBM Systems GroupThe United States Air Force's 526th ICBM Systems Group is a logistics unit located at Hill AFB, Utah.-Mission:The ICBM System Program Office develops, acquires, and supports silo-based ICBMs and provides program direction and logistics support as the single face to the customer...
- 508th Fighter Sustainment Group (508 FSG)
- 558th Aircraft Sustainment Group (558 ACSG) formerly the 508th Mature Aircraft and Simulator Sustainment Group (508 MASSG)
- 508th Attack Sustainment Squadron
Lineage
- Constituted as 508th Fighter Group on 5 October 1944
- Activated on 12 October 1944
- Inactivated on 25 November 1945.
- Established as 508th Fighter-Escort Wing on 19 June 1952.
- Activated on 1 July 1952.
- Redesignated 508th Strategic Fighter Wing on 20 January 1953.
- Inactivated on 11 May 1956
- Redesignated as 508th Tactical Fighter Group on 1 January 1973
- Activated in the reserve on 1 January 1973
- Inactivated on 1 October 1982
- Redesignated 508th Aerospace Sustainment Wing on 31 January 2005
- Activated on 4 March 2005
Assignments
- 72d Fighter Wing72d Fighter WingThe 72d Fighter Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last was assigned to the Second Air Force, stationed at Colorado Springs Army Air Base, Colorado...
, 12 October 1944 - Seventh Air ForceSeventh Air ForceThe Seventh Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea....
, 6 January – 25 November 1945 - 40th Air Division40th Air DivisionThe 40th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Fifteenth Air Force, stationed at Malmstrom AFB, Montana...
, 1 July 1952 – 11 May 1956
- Attached to: 39th Air Division (Defense), 8 February – 13 May 1953; 12 February – 7 May 1954
- Fourth Air ForceFourth Air ForceThe Fourth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Reserve . It is headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, California....
(Reserve), 1 January 1973 – 1 October 1982 - Air Force Materiel CommandAir Force Materiel CommandAir Force Materiel Command is a major command of the United States Air Force. AFMC was created July 1, 1992 through the reorganization of Air Force Logistics Command and Air Force Systems Command....
, 4 March 2005–present
- Fourth Air Force
Components
- 466th Fighter (later Strategic Fighter; later Tactical Figher) Squadron: 12 October 1944 – 25 November 1945; 1 July 1952 – 11 May 1956 (not operational, 1 July – September 1952); 1 October 1982 – 1 August 1992
- 467th Fighter (later Strategic Fighter) Squadron467th Strategic Fighter SquadronThe 467th Strategic Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 508th Strategic Fighter Wing, based at Turner AFB, Georgia...
: 12 October 1944 – 25 November 1945; 1 July 1952 – 11 May 1956 - 468th Fighter (later Strategic Fighter) Squadron468th Strategic Fighter SquadronThe 468th Strategic Fighter Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 508th Strategic Fighter Wing, based at Turner AFB, Georgia...
: 12 October 1944 – 25 November 1945; 1 July 1952 – 11 May 1956 (not operational, 1 July – September 1952) - 508th Air Refueling Squadron508th Air Refueling SquadronThe United States Air Force's 508th Air Refueling Squadron was an aerial refueling unit that operated the Boeing KB-29 at Turner AFB, Georgia....
: 25 November 1953 – 11 May 1956 (detached 10 February – 1 June 1954; 4 July – 15 October 1954)
Stations
- Peterson FieldPeterson FieldPeterson Field is a public-use airport located three nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Plains, a city in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. It is privately owned by G. Thomas Peterson.- Facilities and aircraft :...
, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, 12 October 1944 - Pocatello AAF, IdahoIdahoIdaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, 25 October 1944 - Bruning AAFBruning Army AirfieldBruning Army Airfield was a flight training installation of the United States Army Air Forces used during World War II and located in northeast Thayer County, Nebraska, at coordinates 40°20'25" North, 97°25'42" West, approximately six miles east of Bruning....
, NebraskaNebraskaNebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
, 15 November – 18 December 1944 - Kahuku Army AirfieldKahuku Army AirfieldKahuku Army Airfield is a former wartime airfield in Hawaii. It was located in the northern part of the Island of Oahu.-World War II:Possibly developed as an emergency field dating to the 1930s, but it was not until the United States entered World War II that the airfield was developed...
, Hawaii Territory, 6 January 1945 - Mokuleia Army Airfield, Hawaii Territory, 25 February 1945
- Bellows Field, Hawaii Territory, 16 September – 25 November 1945
- Turner AFB, GeorgiaGeorgia (U.S. state)Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, (1953–1956) - Hill AFB, UtahUtahUtah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, 1973–1982; 2005–present
Aircraft
- F-84 ThunderjetF-84 ThunderjetThe Republic F-84 Thunderjet was an American turbojet fighter-bomber aircraft. Originating as a 1944 United States Army Air Forces proposal for a "day fighter", the F-84 flew in 1946...
, 1952–1956 - KB-29 Superfortress (Tanker), 1953–1956
- F-105 ThunderchiefF-105 ThunderchiefThe Republic F-105 Thunderchief, was a supersonic fighter-bomber used by the United States Air Force. The Mach 2 capable F-105 conducted the majority of strike bombing missions during the early years of the Vietnam War; it has the dubious distinction of being the only US aircraft to have been...
, 1973–1982
Operational history
World War II
The 508th Fighter Group was constituted on 5 October 1944 and activated on 12 October at Peterson FieldPeterson Air Force Base
Peterson Air Force Base is a base of the United States Air Force located at Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States and it provides runways for the adjacent City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport under a shared joint civil-military airport arrangement...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. The group trained with P-47 Thunderbolt
P-47 Thunderbolt
Republic Aviation's P-47 Thunderbolt, also known as the "Jug", was the largest, heaviest, and most expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single reciprocating engine. It was heavily armed with eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully loaded, the P-47 weighed up to...
aircraft to provide very-long-range escort for B-29 Superfortress
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
bombardment units in the Pacific Theater.
The lack of significant Japanese fighter defense by late 1944 caused a change of mission and the group was reassigned to Seventh Air Force
Seventh Air Force
The Seventh Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces . It is headquartered at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea....
in Hawaii in January 1945 and served as part of the defense force for the islands. In Hawaii, the group also trained replacement pilots for other organizations, repaired P-47's and P-51's received from combat units, and ferried aircraft to forward areas.
The unit was inactivated in Hawaii on 25 November 1945 when it replaced by the 15th Fighter Group
15th Airlift Wing
The 15th Wing is a wing of the United States Air Force at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. It is the airlift arm of Pacific Air Forces and United States Pacific Command and reports directly to the commander, Pacific Air Forces.-Mission:...
.
Cold War
The 508th Fighter-Escort Wing was activated by Strategic Air CommandStrategic Air Command
The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
in 1952. Its mission was to provide fighter escort for B-29 and B-50, and later B-36 intercontinental bombers. The Strategic Air Command was founded by men who had flown bombing raids against Germany during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. They usually encountered swarms of enemy fighters and knew the importance of having fighter escorts.
Advances in technology soon made fighter-escort wings obsolete. A single atomic bomb had more explosive power than all the bombs dropped during all of World War II, so only one of them could certainly destroy a target far more effectively than the large mass formations of World War II B-17s and B-24s. Thus SAC's missions were based on the use of an individual airplane, not a formation of them.
During its first postwar decade (1945–1955), SAC flew many B-29s left over from the war and later propeller-driven B-50
B-50 Superfortress
The Boeing B-50 Superfortress strategic bomber was a post-World War II revision of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, fitted with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, stronger structure, a taller fin, and other improvements. It was the last piston-engined bomber designed by Boeing for...
s and B-36s. They were soon replaced by new jet bombers, the B-47 and B-52. The jet bombers flew so fast and so high that they were virtually immune from fighters. Plus the early jet F-84s and F-86s in SAC's fighter inventory couldn't keep up with them. The fighter-escort wings were no longer necessary, so they were either inactivated or assigned to other commands.
The wing deployed at Misawa AB, Japan, with the 319th Air Division to provide air defense, Feb~May 1953 and Feb~May 1954. It was inactivated on 11 May 1956.
Reactivated as a Tactical Air Command
Tactical Air Command
Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force, established on 21 March 1946 being headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia...
reserve group at Hill AFB, Utah in 1973 when the Air Force Reserve modernization program added fighter aircraft which resulted in the unit being activated as the 508th Tactical Fighter Group and being assigned F-105 Thunderchief aircraft which were returned from inactivated units being withdrawn from combat in Southeast Asia. Trained in Wild Weasel SAM suppression tactics. The unit changed from a group to a wing, inactivated, and the personnel and equipment were absorbed by the activating 419th Tactical Fighter Wing
419th Fighter Wing
The 419th Group trained in the Reserve for troop carrier operations from 1949 to 1951. Since 1982, the 419th, now as a wing, trained for worldwide combat fighter operations. It was the last wing to fly F-105 aircraft, and in early 1984 was the first Air Force Reserve wing to fly F-16s. Personnel of...
.