The wing provided host station support functions primarily for SAC B/RB-36 Peacemaker, B-47 Stratojet, B-52 Stratofortess, & KC-97 Tanker Wing and Support Elements deployed to Upper Heyford during REFLEX deployments from United States bases. In addition to its assigned units, the 1st Aviation Field Depot Squadron (later 1st Aviation Depot Squadron) and the 11th Aviation Depot Squadron (later 11th Munitions Maintenance Squadron), which were assigned to 7th AD and attached to the wing and were responsible for the control of nuclear weapons ("special weapons") at Upper Heyford.
It was inactivated in 1965 and replaced by USAFE's 7514th Combat Support Group (CSG) as the host base operating unit when SAC turned control over Upper Heyford to the
United States Air Forces in Europe.[1] Detachment 1, 98th Strategic Wing assumed the SAC mission.
Lineage
Designated as the 7509th Air Base Squadron and organized on 7 July 1950
Redesignated as 7509th Air Base Group on 25 May 1951
Transferred from USAFE to SAC on 1 January 1952 and redesignated 3918th Air Base Group[2]
Redesignated 3918th Combat Support Group on 1 May 1959
^The transfer to SAC required that the group be renumbered into the block reserved for SAC as required by AF Manual 26-2.
^Third Air Force replaced the 3d Air Division as the USAFE headquarters for the United Kingdom Maurer, Maurer, ed. (1983) [1961].
Air Force Combat Units of World War II(PDF) (reprint ed.). Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. pp. 379–380, 458–459.
ISBN0-912799-02-1.
^Until 18 December 1955, the station name was Upper Heyford RAF, Fletcher, p. 131
Willard, TSG Richard R. (1988) [1968]. Location of United States Military Units in the United Kingdom, 16 July 1948 – 31 December 1967. USAF Air Station, South Ruislip, United Kingdom: Historical Division, Office of Information, Third Air Force.
LCCN68061579.