page_title: 506th Air Expeditionary Group
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 506th Air Expeditionary Group / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: 506th Strategic Fighter Wing F-84G Thunderjets 1954
context_page_description: The 506th Air Expeditionary Group is a provisional United States Air Force unit. The group is assigned to the United States Air Forces Central 332d Air Expeditionary Wing, stationed at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
  The 506 AEG secures the base, conducts safe flight operations and supports the nation builders in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and other US Air Forces Central and US Central Command contingency plans. As a provisional unit, the 506 AEG may be activated or inactivated at any time.
  The group's lineage begins in 1944 as the 301st Fighter Group which flew P-51 Mustangs as part of Twentieth Air Force in the Western Pacific. During the Cold War, the unit was a Strategic Air Command fighter-escort unit and later active with Tactical Air Command and the Air Force Reserve as a tactical fighter unit.
context_section_description: The 506th was established as a Strategic Air Command Strategic Fighter Wing on 20 November 1952 and was assigned to SAC's Eighth Air Force. Activated on 20 January 1953, at Dow Air Force Base, Maine, the wing composed of the 457th, 458th and 462s Strategic Fighter Squadrons and was equipped with F-84G Thunderjets.
  SAC was founded by men who had flown bomb raids against Germany during World War II. They usually encountered swarms of enemy fighters and knew the importance of having fighter escorts, so they had fighter wings placed under their own operational control. Although assigned to SAC, the group was associated with Air Defense Command and assisted in providing air defense of Maine.
  The wing was deployed to Misawa Air Base, Japan between 13 August and 7 November 1953 to support SAC's rotational deployment of fighter units to northern Japan to perform air defense duties, relieving the 12th Strategic Fighter Wing. Under the self-supporting concept, the 506th SFW gained the KB-29P Superfortress 506th Air Refueling Squadron on 23 September 1953. The 506th ARS remained with the wing until 1 March 1955. Upon the wing's return to the United States, the 508th was re-equipped with new F-84F Thunderstreaks, in January 1954 becoming the first SAC fighter wing to be equipped with the swept-wing model.
  The wing remained at Dow for just over a year until being reassigned to Second Air Force and was transferred to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma on 20 March 1955. At Tinker, the wing performed fighter-escort duty training to various SAC B-36 Peacemaker heavy and B-50 medium bomber wings as part of the peacetime readiness training mission of SAC. However, as the new B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress bombers came into service, the mission of the fighter-escort wings of SAC became obsolete. The Thunderstreaks simply couldn't keep up with the speed and fly as high as the jet bombers.
  In 1956 SAC got out of the fighter business and the 506th was reassigned to Tactical Air Command on 1 July 1957. Under TAC, the wing was redesignated as the 506th Fighter-Day Wing and was re-equipped with new F-100D Super Sabres. From 1957 to 1958 the 506th participated in tactical exercises and rotated squadrons to Europe.
  The wing was redesignated as the 506th Tactical Fighter Wing on 1 July 1958 as part of an Air Force-Wide redesignation of units. It was inactivated on 1 April 1959 due to budget constraints.
  The 506th was reactivated and redesignated the 506th Tactical Fighter Group on 4 May 1972 and activated in the Air Force Reserve on 8 July 1972 at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. The group was equipped with F-105 Thunderchiefs, being returned from Vietnam War duty with the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing at Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. The Thuds assigned were largely war-weary and the model was being phased out of the inventory. The group was inactivated after just about a year of duty on 25 March 1973 as part of the drawdown after the end of United States involvement in Vietnam.
caption: 506th Strategic Fighter Wing F-84G Thunderjets 1954
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