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The 38th Combat Support Wing (38 CSW) is an inactive wing of the United States Air Force. Its last assignment was with Third Air Force, being inactivated on 1 May 2007 at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. The mission of the 38 CSW was to enhance support to USAFE geographically separated units.
The Wing's origins date to 1948 as the 38th Bombardment Wing. Its operational group, the 38th Bombardment Group, was one of the first Army Air Forces units to be deployed into the Pacific Theater after Pearl Harbor. The 38th CSW was temporarily authorized to display the honors earned by the group prior to 14 August 1948.[1]
The unit was established as 38th Bombardment Wing, Light on 10 August 1948 in Japan. It assisted in the air defense of Japan and participated in tactical exercises, August 1948 – March 1949. It was inactivated in the Far East on 1 April 1949.
The 38th Bombardment Wing was reactivated as part of the United States Air Forces in Europe on 1 January 1953, being assigned to Laon-Couvron Air Base, France. Upon activation, the wing absorbed the assets of the Air National Guard 126th Bomb Wing, which was inactivated and returned to the control of the Illinois Air National Guard. The 38th's squadrons were designated the 71st, 405th, and 822nd Bomb Squadrons. The wing flew the Douglas Douglas B-26 Invader until 1955.
The wing received its first Martin B-57B Canberra in June 1955, and began to replace its aging Douglas B-26 Invaders.[3] With the B-57's arrival, the B-26s were returned to CONUS. Because English Electric was unable to meet the USAF delivery schedule, the design was licensed to Martin for US manufacture. A total of 49 B-57B and 8 2-seat B-57C models were deployed to Laon.
The mission of the B-57 was to provide a nuclear deterrent for Paris Air Show. The Black Knights were the only tactical bomber show team in the world.
In 1958, General De Gaulle announced that all nuclear weapons and delivery aircraft had to be removed from French soil by July 1958. Since NATO strategy had evolved into "massive nuclear retaliation" this meant all tactical fighter and bombing wings had to depart France.
The 38th TBW was inactivated at Laon on 18 June 1958 and redesignated as the 38th Tactical Missile Wing at Hahn Air Base West Germany, operating and maintaining first the TM-67A "Matador" and later the TM-76A Mace cruise missiles. The wing was inactivated in September 1966.
The 38th was reactivated as the 38th Flying Training Wing and replaced the 3640th Pilot Training Wing at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, on 1 August 1972. Its operational squadrons were the 40th and 41st Pilot Training Squadrons. The wing performed pilot training until 28 August 1973 when Laredo was inactivated.
The 38th Flying Training Wing was reassigned to 3550th Pilot Training Wing. The 38th performed pilot training until 21 November 1975. On 1 December 1975 the 347th Tactical Fighter Wing, a unit of Tactical Air Command (TAC), relocated to Moody from Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand and the mission of the base changed from pilot training under ATC to an active tactical fighter base under TAC.
The 38th FTW was inactivated on 1 December 1975.
In April 1985, the 38th Tactical Missile Wing, was activated at Wueschheim AB, West Germany. The wing was assigned to tactical missile operations, equipped with Ground-Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCM) to counter Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missiles from 1986–1990. The GLCMs (and their strategic cousins, the Pershing IIs) had a destabilizing effect on the Soviet Union, as NATO's ability to stand firm and carry out the deployments in the face of nerve-wracking Soviet threats convinced the Kremlin that NATO could not be intimidated.
It was this realization that led to the opening of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) talks and an INF treaty that eventually removed an entire class of nuclear arms from the superpower arsenals. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with the Soviet Union which went into effect on 1 June 1988, led to inactivation of the wing on 22 August 1990.
The 38th went on to serve as the 38th Engineering Installation Wing wing from 8 November 1994 – 3 February 2000 at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, to provide the Air Force with centralized management of worldwide engineering and installation (E&I) resources. The wing reorganized the Command and Control Systems Center and became the Communications Systems Center (CSC). CSC leaders created a new structure, which accommodated a more effective business-management approach to satisfying the communications-computer software requirements of our Air Force and DoD customers. The 38 EIW was inactivated in February 2000 and downgraded to a group level. The transfer of responsibilities were assigned solely to the 38th Engineering Installation Group (38 EIG) located at Tinker.
The 38th Combat Support Wing was activated at Ramstein AB, Germany in 2004 to enhance support to the over 70 USAFE geographically separated units (GSUs) and units across Europe. But a review found the wing actually created an extra layer of bureaucracy and isolated units would be better served without it. Also studies showed that larger, neighboring bases could offer better support for airmen scattered across the continent.
The 38th CSW was inactivated on 30 September 2007.
Groups
Squadrons
Between 1958–1966, the 38th TMW maintained eight separate launch facilities.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.
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