page_title: Fifteenth Air Force
section_title: Postwar era in late 1940s
hierarchical_section_title: Fifteenth Air Force / Postwar era in late 1940s
caption_attribution_description: English: Boeing B-50D Superfortress 47-101 of the 15th Air Force displaying at Leeds Yeadon airport
context_page_description: The Fifteenth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command. It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base. 15 AF was reactivated on 20 August 2020 to consolidate the units of the Ninth Air Force and Twelfth Air Force to form a new numbered air force responsible for generating and presenting Air Combat Command’s conventional forces.
  Established on 1 November 1943, Fifteenth AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the European Theater of World War II, engaging in strategic bombardment operations from bases in southern Italy and engaging in air-to-air fighter combat against enemy aircraft.
  During the Cold War, 15 AF was one of three Numbered Air Forces of the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command, commanding USAF strategic bombers and missiles on a global scale. Elements of 15th Air Force engaged in combat operations during the Korean War; Vietnam War, as well as Operation Desert Storm.
  15 AF was redesignated Fifteenth Expeditionary Mobility Task Force on 1 October 2003.
context_section_description: On 31 March 1946, Fifteenth Air Force was reactivated at Colorado Springs AAB, Colorado and assigned to the ten-day-old Strategic Air Command. 15th AF assumed the assets and personnel of the former Continental Air Forces Second Air Force, which was inactivated on 30 March.
  The original bomb groups assigned to 15th Air Force were:
  
  
   
  28th Bombardment Group
  Activated at Grand Island AAF, Nebraska on 4 August 1946
  Transferred to Eleventh Air Force, Elmendorf AAF, Alaska,
  20 October 1946
  Reassigned to 15th AF at Rapid City AAF, South Dakota
  3 May 1947
  Established as 28th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy),
  28 July 1947*
  92d Bombardment Group
  Activated at Ft Worth AAF, Texas, 4 August 1946
  Reassigned to Smoky Hill AAF, Kansas, October 1946
  Reassigned to Spokane AAF, Washington, June 1947
  Established as 92d Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy),
  17 November 1947*
  93d Bombardment Group
  Activated at Castle Field, California, 21 June 1946
  Established as 93d Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy),
  28 July 1947*
   
  97th Bombardment Group
  Activated at Smoky Hill AAF, Kansas, 4 August 1946
  Established as 97th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy),
  11 September 1947*
  Reassigned to Eighth Air Force, 16 May 1948
  301st Bombardment Group
  Activated at Clovis AAF, New Mexico on 4 August 1946
  Inactivated 16 July 1947
  Reactivated at Smoky Hill AAF, Kansas, 16 July 1947
  Established as 301st Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy),
  15 October 1947*
  Reassigned to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, 7 November 1949
  307th Bombardment Group
  Activated at MacDill AAF, Florida on 4 August 1946
  Established as 307th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy),
  28 July 1947*
  311th Reconnaissance Wing
  Reassigned to MacDill AAF, Florida on 17 April 1946
  Transferred to Fifteenth Air Force on 1 May 1946
  Redesignated as 311th Air Division (Reconnaissance) on 6 April 1948
   
  .*Group became subordinate element to wing.
  However, demobilization was in full swing and few of these groups were fully equipped or manned. All of these groups were equipped with B-29 Superfortresses, most or all of which were aircraft which returned from Twentieth Air Force groups returning from the Pacific War. When SAC was established in 1946, its primary bomber aircraft was the B-29. Although there were many in storage, they were war-weary. The plane was greatly improved and soon new models, designated the B-50 Superfortress, began joining the inventory replacing the older aircraft.
  The 15 AF returned to a combat-ready role as a result of the 1948 Berlin Crisis, a squadron from the 301st Bombardment Group was deployed with its B-29s at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, Germany. SAC immediately ordered the group's other two squadrons to Goose Bay Air Base, Labrador to prepare for immediate deployment to Germany. The 307th and 28th Bombardment Groups were placed on alert and ordered to be ready to deploy within three and twelve hours respectively. Within a few weeks, the other 301st Bomb Group's squadrons had joined the first. Later on 28 July, Bombardment Group left Rapid City AFB, South Dakota for RAF Scampton, in the United Kingdom. The 307th Bombardment Group left MacDill AFB, Florida for RAF Marham and RAF Waddington in the UK.
  The 56th Fighter Wing at Selfridge in Michigan left Fifteenth Air Force on 1 December 1948, transferring to Tenth Air Force.
  On 7 November 1949, Headquarters Fifteenth Air Force was relocated to March AFB, California. As part of this realignment, most SAC bomber forces west of the Mississippi River were reassigned to 15th AF. Those east of the Mississippi were assigned to SAC's other strategic air force, Eighth Air Force, and reassigned to Westover AFB, Massachusetts, where it commanded all SAC bases in the eastern United States.
  From 1947 onwards Fifteenth Air Force incorporated a number of fighter escort wings and strategic fighter wings, intended to escort bombers to their targets. Among these units were the 56th Fighter Wing, 71st Strategic Fighter Wing, the 82nd Fighter Wing, and the 407th Strategic Fighter Wing. They were all redesignated and transferred to other USAF components in 1957–58 with the end of the fighter escor
caption: Boeing B-50D of Fifteenth Air Force displaying while on detachment to England in May 1953
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