page_title: 32nd Air Expeditionary Group
section_title: Tactical Fighters
hierarchical_section_title: 32nd Air Expeditionary Group / History / Tactical Fighters
caption_attribution_description: McDonnell Douglas F-4C-15-MC
context_page_description: The 32d Air Expeditionary Group is a provisional unit of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to United States Air Forces in Europe to activate or inactivate at any time. It was last active as the 32d Air And Space Operations Center in December 2006 at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
  The group was first activated in 1940 at Rio Hato Army Air Base, Panama as the 32d Pursuit Group to provide air defense for the Panama Canal Zone. It continued in this mission until 1943, when the perceived threat of an attack on the Panama Canal decreased and the group, by then the 32d Fighter Group, was disbanded. As Air Defense Command expanded its defenses during the Cold War against possible Soviet attack with units stationed along the northern border of the United States, the group was revived in February 1957 at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. As Minot facilities expanded to accommodate Strategic Air Command units there, a larger organization was required to manage the station and the group was inactivated and replaced by the 32d Fighter Wing.
  The 32d Composite Wing was activated at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa in August 1948 as part of the Air Force's wing base reorganization.
context_section_description: In April 1964, Tactical Air Command activated the wing as the 32d Tactical Fighter Wing at George Air Force Base, California, to be equipped with F-4C Phantom IIs. The wing had four assigned tactical fighter squadrons, the 782nd, 783d, 784th, and 785th. But, before the wing became fully equipped and trained with the new fighter aircraft, the Air Force replaced the wing with the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, which returned to the US from Japan in July. In anticipation of this replacement, three fighter-interceptor squadrons, the 68th, 431st, and 497th, were transferred to the 32d shortly before its inactivation. These squadrons were redesignated as tactical fighter squadrons and transferred to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing when the 32d was inactivated, while the 32d's original four squadrons inactivated with the wing.
caption: F-4C as flown by the 32d Tactical Fighter Wing
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