page_title: 33rd Operations Group
section_title: Contingency operations
hierarchical_section_title: 33rd Operations Group / History / Contingency operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Five 60th Fighter Squadron F-15Cs, from the 33rd Fighter Wing, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., soar over the mountains ranges of Alaska during their overseas deployment to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, to participate in Red Flag Alaska 07-1. The exercise is to prepare them for their Air Expeditionary Force 9/10 deployment window. Approximately 16 F-15s and more than 240 Airmen traveled to Elmendorf March 28 as part of the deployment.
context_page_description: The 33d Operations Group is the flying component of the 33d Fighter Wing, assigned to Air Education and Training Command of the United States Air Force. The group is stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
  The group was first activated in January 1941 as the 33d Pursuit Group and began training in fighter operations at Mitchel Field, New York. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor the group moved to Philadelphia, where it assumed an air defense role while training for combat. After being redesignated the 33d Fighter Group, it moved to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in November 1942 as part of Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, flying its planes to its first base in Morocco from the aircraft carrier USS Chenango of the United States Navy. The group served in North Africa and Italy until February 1944, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation in January 1943 for its defense of its base from attacks by German and Italian aircraft.
  In 1944, the group departed Italy for the China-Burma-India Theater, leaving its Curtiss P-40 Warhawks behind for Lockheed P-38 Lightnings and Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. It continued combat operations until the surrender of Japan.
context_section_description: As the 33d Fighter Wing reorganized under the Objective Wing system on 1 December 1991, the group was activated as the 33d Operations Group and once more assigned its original three squadrons, which were equipped with the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, together with an operations support squadron. In May 1992 the group was enlarged by the assignment of the 728th Air Control Squadron at Duke Field when the 507th Air Control Wing inactivated.
  From 1992 through 2002 the group deployed aircraft and personnel to Saudi Arabia, Canada, the Caribbean, South America, Jamaica, Iceland, Italy, and Puerto Rico and participated in various operations. The group lost members of its 58th and 60th Fighter Squadron and 33d Operations Support Squadron in the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia on 25 June 1996 during one of these deployments.
  In 1999, as a result of the administration reductions in military spending, the group lost six of its F-15s. The 59th squadron inactivated on 15 April as a result and the remainder of its aircraft were split between the other two squadrons.
  The group engaged in air expeditionary operations in various combat areas as part of the Global War on Terrorism.
  In May 2008, the 728th Air Control Squadron was reassigned to the 552d Air Control Wing. The group continued to shrink when, on 1 October 2008, the 60th Fighter Squadron flew its last sortie with the Eagle and became non-operational. It inactivated on 1 January 2009. In July, the group stopped operating F-15s in anticipation of receiving the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. For more than a year, it would remain without assigned aircraft.
caption: Five F-15Cs from the 33d Fighter Wing during a deployment to Elmendorf AFB
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