page_title: 18th Wing
section_title: Korean War
hierarchical_section_title: 18th Wing / History / Korean War
caption_attribution_description: English: 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing North American F-51D-30-NA Mustang 1950 South Korea
context_page_description: The United States Air Force's 18th Wing is the host wing for Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan and is the Air Force's largest combat wing. It is the largest and principal organization in the Pacific Air Forces Fifth Air Force.
  The Wing's 18th Operations Group is a successor organization of the 18th Pursuit Group, one of the 15 original combat air groups formed by the Army before World War II.
context_section_description: The 18th Fighter-Bomber Wing was reassigned to Korea in July 1950 and entered combat.   Its organization was as follows:
  12th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (F-80C, F-51D, F-86F)
  67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron (F-80C, F-51D, F-86F)
  39th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (March 1951 – March 1952) (F-51D)
  2 Squadron SAAF, South African Air Force (November 1950 – March 1951, April 1951 – June 1953) (F-51D, F-86F)
  At the outbreak of the Korean War, the 18th FBG's 12th FBS provided personnel to form the "Dallas" fighter squadron, which rushed into battle. In late July, the group headquarters with two of its squadrons (12th and 67th FBSs) deployed with F-80s from the Philippines to Taegu AB (K-37), South Korea.
  From 28 July to 3 August, the 18th Group operated directly under Fifth Air Force then passed to the control of the 6002nd Fighter (later, Tactical Support) Wing. Pilots exchanged their F-80s for F-51 Mustangs. Combat targets included tanks and armored vehicles, locomotives and trucks, artillery and antiaircraft guns, fuel and ammunition dumps, warehouses and factories, and troop concentrations.
  In August, advancing enemy forces and insufficient aircraft parking at Taegu forced the group to move to Japan, but it returned to South Korea the following month to support UN forces in a counteroffensive. Because the front advanced so rapidly, operations from Pusan East (K-9) Air Base soon became impractical, and the group moved in November to Pyongyang East Air Base (K-24), North Korea. The 2nd SAAF Squadron joined the 18th in mid-November.
  Maj Louis J. Sebille was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his action on 5 August 1950: although his plane was badly damaged by flak while attacking a concentration of enemy trucks, Maj Sebille continued his strafing passes until he crashed into an armored vehicle.
  The Chinese Communist (CCF intervention) caused the group to move twice in as many weeks, first to Suwon AB (K-13), South Korea, then to Chinhae (K-10). From there the 18th FBG continued to support ground forces and carry out armed reconnaissance and interdiction missions. From November 1950 through January 1951, it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation for destroying roughly 2,400 enemy vehicles and severely damaging almost 500 more.
  From early 1951 until January 1953, the group and its tactical squadrons, moving from base to base in South Korea, operated separately from the rest of the 18th FBW. The group earned its second Distinguished Unit Citation from 22 April to 8 July 1951, when it flew 6,500 combat sorties while operating from sod, dirt filled, and damaged runways to counter the enemy's 1951 spring offensive.
  When in January 1953 the group rejoined the wing at Osan-ni AB (K-55), its squadrons transitioned to F-86 Sabrejets without halting the fight against the enemy. It flew its first F-86 counter air mission on 26 February 1953. In the final days of the war, the 18th FBG attacked dispersed enemy aircraft at Sinuiju and Uiju Airfields.
  The group remained in Korea for some time after the armistice.  The wing was reassigned to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa in November 1954.
caption: North American F-51D-30-NA Mustang, AF Ser. No. 44-74651, cira 1950.  This aircraft was deployed to South Korea and is marked as the Wing Commander's.
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