page_title: 50th Operations Group
section_title: Reactivation in the Regular Air Force
hierarchical_section_title: 50th Operations Group / History / Reactivation in the Regular Air Force
caption_attribution_description: English: 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron - North American F-86F-30-NA Sabre - 52-4597 - Clovis AFB NM 1953
context_page_description: The 50th Operations Group was a component of the 50th Space Wing, assigned to the United States Space Operation Command from 1991-2020. The group is stationed at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.
  The group was activated in January 1941 as the 50th Pursuit Group and began training under Third Air Force. In May 1942 it was reassigned to the Army Air Forces School of Applied Tactics, where it was a training and test unit as the 50th Fighter Group. The group moved to the European Theater of Operations in the Spring 1944 expansion of Ninth Air Force in England in preparation for Operation Overlord. It few its first combat mission on 1 May 1944. The group moved to France in late June and continued in combat until V-E Day. During combat operations over Western Europe, the unit received two Distinguished Unit Citations. It returned to the United States, where it was inactivated on 7 November 1945.
  In June 1949 the group was activated as a reserve unit at Otis Air Force Base, Massachusetts, where it was a corollary unit of the active duty 33d Fighter Group. In 1950, it became the 50th Fighter-Interceptor Group.
context_section_description: On 1 January 1953, the group became the 50th Fighter-Bomber Group and was reactivated as part of Tactical Air Command at Clovis Air Force Base, New Mexico.  The 10th, 81st and 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadrons were assigned to the group. For the third time, the group was equipped with the F-51 Mustang.    These fighters along with their pilots, support personnel and other equipment were taken over from the 140th Fighter-Bomber Group of the Colorado Air National Guard, which was simultaneously released from active duty and returned to state control.
  The 140th had been training with Mustangs at Clovis for little over a year, but before long, the group replaced its Mustangs with jet-powered F-86F Sabres. The conversion to the Sabre continued through the spring and early summer of 1953, as crews and maintenance personnel became familiar the Sabre. Once training levels for pilots and ground crews had reached operational levels, the 50th began preparations for its move to Europe.
  The 50th deployed to Hahn on 10 August 1953, in a movement titled Operation Fox Able 20.  The ground echelon of the wing sailed from Galveston, Texas, to Bremerhaven, West Germany aboard the USS General M. B. Stewart (AP-140). It traveled by rail to its new home at Hahn, arriving in August 1953.
caption: 417th Fighter-Bomber Squadron Sabres at Clovis AFB
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