page_title: 43rd Airlift Wing
section_title: 3960th Strategic Wing
hierarchical_section_title: 43rd Airlift Wing / History / Vietnam War / 3960th Strategic Wing
caption_attribution_description: English: 3960th Strategic Wing emblem (Strategic Air Command)
context_page_description: The 43rd Airlift Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit last stationed at Pope Field, part of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it was inactivated in March 2011. The wing performed en route operations support at Pope Field to include mission command & control, aircrew management, aircraft maintenance, aircraft loading, aircraft fueling and supply. Since the wing's inactivation, the 43rd Airlift Group has carried out airlift, maintenance, and base support at Pope Field.
  The wing provided strategic, en-route airlift support and Lockheed C-130 Hercules tactical airlift support to the Army's XVIII Airborne Corps and 82nd Airborne Division. The wing traces its roots back to the 43rd Bombardment Group, which was constituted 20 November 1940, and activated 15 January 1941, at Langley Field, VA. It operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater as a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and later a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy-bomber unit assigned to Fifth Air Force. The 43rd Operations Group carries the lineage and history of its highly decorated World War II predecessor unit.
context_section_description: Once their B-58s were in storage, the 43rd BW was temporarily inactivated, but was immediately reactivated with the assets of the 3960th Strategic Wing (SW) at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.  The 3960th SW had been established at Andersen as the 3960th Air Base Wing when the base transferred from Pacific Air Forces to SAC on 1 April 1955.
  The 3960th supported SAC Boeing B-47 Stratojet REFLEX deployments to Andersen over the years the wing designation and its mission changed to supporting deployed Boeing B-52 Stratofortress aircraft forming the Andersen Task Force, Provisional.
  On 1 April 1965 the wing once again was redesignated the 3960th Strategic Wing and its mission changed to support B-52 elements from SAC CONUS-based units engaged in combat operations over Southeast Asia on a daily basis during the Vietnam War as the 320th Bombardment Wing from Mather Air Force Base California and the 454th Bombardment Wing at Columbus AFB, Mississippi
caption: 3960th Strategic Wing Emblem
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