page_title: 85th Group
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 85th Group / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron McDonnell F-4E-32-MC Phantom 66-300 Aircraft was sold to Turkey in 1987. A plane bearing this serial number is on outdoor display at Keflavik AB, Iceland, but it is not actually the original 66-0300.
context_page_description: The 85th Group is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with United States Air Forces in Europe at Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland, assigned as a unit of the 48th Fighter Wing whose home station is at RAF Lakenheath, UK. It was inactivated on 28 June 2006.
context_section_description: The second predecessor of the 85th Group was the Iceland Air Defense Force, which replaced the Iceland Base Command, which had been the headquarters for Army (and later Air Force) units stationed in Iceland since 1942 and was assigned to Military Air Transport Service (MATS).  Between 1952 and 1961, provided air defense for Iceland, operated Keflavik Airport, and furnished base support for all U.S. military forces in Iceland. Fighters assigned to the unit routinely intercepted Soviet Union aircraft flying in the Iceland area.  It performed its defense mission under North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the Air Force component of NATO Iceland Defense Force.  Keflavik Airport was transferred to the U.S. Navy on 30 June 1961, along with base support activities.
  Air Forces Iceland continued the air defense mission of Iceland as a tenant organization at Keflavik.  it was transferred from MATS to Air Defense Command in 1962; Tactical Air Command in 1978 and Air Combat Command in 1992 until it was inactivated in 1993 and replaced by the 35th Wing.  In 1994, it was consolidated with the 85th Tactical Fighter Training Wing and activated to replace the 35th Wing to serve again as the headquarters for Air Force units in Iceland, as the 85th Wing.  It assumed the operational management of fighter and tanker aircraft deployed to Iceland to protect the nation's airspace.  It defended U.S. national interests in the North Atlantic.  In 2003, its 56th Rescue Squadron deployed to Liberia as part of Joint Task Force Liberia.  It provided a U.S. presence over the capital of Monrovia towards the end of the Second Liberian Civil War and saved lives by extracting people from the United States Embassy in Monrovia.
  Air Force reductions and a new agreement with the Government of Iceland continued to affect Keflavik organizations.  On 1 March 1995, the 57th Fighter Squadron was inactivated and the interceptor force was replaced by Regular Air Force and Air National Guard F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft rotating every 90 days to Iceland. The 85th Wing was reduced to a Group level in 1995 and supported rotational deployments.  In 2002 jurisdiction of Air Force units in Iceland was transferred to the United States Air Forces in Europe.
  The 85th Group continued to support rotational deployments until it was inactivated during a one-hour, formal ceremony on 28 June 2006, as a result of the Air Force reduction in forces in Iceland. All rotational fighters left and the 56th Rescue Squadron ceased operation at the end of the fiscal year.
caption: 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron McDonnell F-4E Phantom
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