page_title: 507th Air Refueling Wing
section_title: Air Defense
hierarchical_section_title: 507th Air Refueling Wing / History / Air Defense
caption_attribution_description: English: 438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Convair F-102A-80-CO Delta Dagger 56-1499 507th Fighter Group, Kincheloe AFB, Michigan, July 1958, (Photo taken at Fargo ANG Base, North Dakota)
context_page_description: The 507th Air Refueling Wing is a reserve component flying unit of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to Fourth Air Force of Air Force Reserve Command, stationed at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma with elements at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma. The 507th ARW executes air refueling, airlift, and training in support of Air Mobility Command and U.S. Strategic Command's national emergency war order requirements. The wing employs approximately 1,100 men and women made up of a mix of Traditional Reservists, full-time Air Reserve Technicians, AGRs and Air Force civilians. The wing also provides mission support for all other reserve units stationed at Tinker AFB.
  The first predecessor of the wing was the 507th Fighter Group, which was activated in 1944 and trained as a long range fighter unit for the Pacific Theater. Although the group was in combat for only two months, it earned a Distinguished Unit Citation three days before the Japanese surrender for destroying a number of enemy interceptor aircraft over Korea. In 1984, this group was consolidated with the 507th Fighter Wing into a single unit.
context_section_description: The group was redesignated the 507th Fighter Group (Air Defense) and activated in August 1955 at Kinross Air Force Base, Michigan where it replaced the 534th Air Defense Group and assumed the 534th's mission, personnel and equipment as part of Air Defense Command (ADC)'s Project Arrow. Project Arrow was designed to bring back on the active list the fighter units which had compiled memorable records in the two world wars. The 438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, flying radar equipped Northrop F-89D Scorpions armed with Mighty Mouse rockets, was transferred from the 534th. The 507th was assigned several support organizations to fulfill its additional role as the host for all active duty Air Force organizations at Kinross.
  The 507th Group assumed the air defense mission, training with interceptor aircraft and participating in various exercises. The group (and later the 507th Wing) would continue this mission until September 1968.  In April 1957, the group upgraded to supersonic Convair F-102 Delta Daggers, which could carry the GAR-1 (later AIM-4 Falcon) and were equipped with data link for interception control through the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system.
  In July 1959, Strategic Air Command (SAC) organized the 4239th Strategic Wing as the first major tenant organization at Kinross, although the wing remained a headquarters only with no tactical squadrons assigned until 1961. In September 1959, Kinross was renamed Kincheloe Air Force Base in honor of Captain Iven Kincheloe.
  March 1960 saw another addition to Kincheloe's mission, when ADC activated the 37th Air Defense Missile Squadron, equipped with IM-99 Bomarc missiles. In June, the group completed another upgrade, this time to the Convair F-106 Delta Dart, which it would fly until inactivating in 1968.
  In view of the expanded mission at Kincheloe and the pending growth of the SAC mission once Boeing B-52H Stratofortresses were available, it became apparent that a group was too small to operate the base while performing the air defense mission.  In April 1961 the 507th Fighter Wing replaced the 507th Group and assumed its assets, while adding additional support units, which were assigned to the wing's 507th Air Base Group (later the 507th Combat Support Group). In February 1962, ADC increased the alert requirement for its units.  In addition to the two aircraft the wing had been maintaining on five-minute alert, one third of the unit's aircraft were placed on fifteen-minute alert.
  On 22 October 1962, at the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when President Kennedy announced the presence of Soviet intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) directed the dispersal of interceptors within the United States.  The wing sent one third of its aircraft to Phelps Collins Field, Michigan. All group aircraft, including those at home and those at Phelps Collins were armed and placed on fifteen-minute alert status.  The increased alert posture was maintained through mid-November, when CONAD returned units to their normal alert status, except for those under the control of its 32d Region, which controlled air defense in the Southeastern United States.
  The 4239th Strategic Wing was replaced in February 1963 by the 449th Bombardment Wing. Attrition (and the fact that production lines closed in 1961) caused a gradual drop in the number of planes assigned to interceptor squadrons, from 24 to typically 18 by 1964.  The force reduction continued, finally resulting in a reduction in the number of interceptor units. In September 1968 the 507th Wing was inactivated along with the 438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, while its 507th Combat Support Group was replaced by the 4609th Air Base Group.
caption: 438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron F-102A[note 1]
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