page_title: 38th Combat Support Wing
section_title: First theater missile operations
hierarchical_section_title: 38th Combat Support Wing / History / First theater missile operations
caption_attribution_description: English: A TM-76B (CGM-13B) Mace on display at Bitburg Air Base during Armed Forces Day, 1963
context_page_description: The 38th Combat Support Wing is an inactive wing of the United States Air Force. Its last assignment was with Third Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, Germany from 2004 until 2007. The mission of the wing was to enhance support to Third Air Force's geographically separated units.
  The Wing was first activated in Japan in 1948 as the 38th Bombardment Wing, carrying on the history of the 38th Bombardment Group, which was one of the first Army Air Forces units to operate in the Pacific Theater after Pearl Harbor. The wing served as a light bomber unit in Japan until 1949, when it was inactivated. It was activated again in Europe in 1953.
  In 1958, the wing became the 38th Tactical Missile Wing and controlled Martin TM-61 Matador and Martin MGM-13 Mace missile units in Germany until it was inactivated in 1966.
  Between 1972 and 1975 the wing was twice active as a flying training unit. It returned to the tactical missile mission in Europe until its missiles were withdrawn following the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
context_section_description: Although the wing's bombers departed Europe, the 38th did not go with them.  Instead, it became the 38th Tactical Missile Wing and moved on paper to Hahn Air Base West Germany, where it replaced the 701st Tactical Missile Wing, which had been at Hahn since the fall of 1956.  The wing assumed the operation of the 701st's Martin TM-61 Matador missiles, located on three bases in Germany.  A little more than a year later, the wing moved its headquarters to Sembach Air Base, Germany.  The wing later upgraded to the improved version of the Matador, the Martin TM-76 Mace. When the Mace was phased out of the inventory, te wing was inactivated in September 1966.
caption: A Mace missile at Bitburg AB
exif: {}