385th Air Expeditionary Group The 385th Air Expeditionary Group is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed . It was last known to be stationed at Incirlik AB , Turkey . Its current status is undetermined . During World War II , it was active as the 385th Bombardment Group ( Heavy ) , an Eighth Air Force B - 17 Flying Fortress unit , stationed at RAF Great Ashfield , England . The group led the famous attack on the Focke - Wulf Assembly Plant at Marienburg in East Prussia on 9 October 1943 . During the Cold War , the 385th Strategic Aerospace Wing was a Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) wing assigned to the 818th Strategic Aerospace Division at Offutt Air Force Base , Nebraska . It conducted strategic air refueling operations and maintained ICBM readiness to meet SAC commitments . The wing served as a deterrent force and also supported SAC ' s global air refueling mission until inactivated in 1964 as part of the phaseout of the SM - 65 Atlas ICBM from the USAF inventory . It was inactivated on 15 December 1964 . History . World War II . The unit was first activated as the 385th Bombardment Group ( BG ) in late 1942 at Davis - Monthan Field in Arizona . Its initial squadrons were the 548th , 549th , 550th , and 551st Bombardment Squadron s . The group was formed in February 1943 at Geiger Field , Washington . It trained for two months and then moved to Great Falls AAB , Montana in April 1943 . The unit completed training at the end of May 1943 with the aircraft moving to Kearney AAF , Nebraska prior to moving to England by the northern ferry route . Two aircraft were lost en route . The ground echelon left Great Falls on 8 June 1943 . The 548th BS sailed on the Queen Mary on 23 June 1943 and the other squadrons on the Queen Elizabeth on 1 July 1943 . Under Eighth Air Force based in England , the 385th BG operated primarily as a strategic bombardment organization until the war ended , striking such targets as industrial areas , air bases , oil refineries , and communications centers in Germany , France , Poland , Belgium , the Netherlands , and Norway . The group received two Distinguished Unit Citation s for bombing an aircraft factory at Regensburg on 17 August 1943 after a long hazardous flight over enemy territory . The group led the 4th Bombardment Wing a great distance through heavy and damaging opposition for the successful bombardment of an aircraft repair plant at Zwickau on 12 May 1944 , being awarded another DUC for this performance . Other strategic targets included aircraft factories in Oschersleben and Marienburg , battery works in Stuttgart , airfields in Beauvais and Chartres , oil refineries in Ludwigshafen and Merseburg , and marshalling yards in Munich and Oranienburg . The 385th sometimes supported ground forces and struck interdictory targets . It attacked coastal defenses in June 1944 in preparation for the Normandy invasion and hit marshalling yards and choke points during the landing on D - Day . The group bombed enemy positions in support of ground forces at Saint - Lô in July 1944 . Attacked German communications and fortifications during the Battle of the Bulge , December 1944 – January 1945 . It bombed troop concentrations and communications centers in Germany and France , March – April 1945 , to assist the final thrust into Germany . On 6 March 1944 raid to Berlin ( the most costly mission the Eighth ever carried out ) the 3rd Division commander , Brigadier General Russell Wilson , took off from Great Ashfield in a radar - equipped B - 17 in a leading group of the 385th . All of the 385th aircraft returned safely . . . all , that is , except the one carrying General Wilson . which was seen to take several hits from flak . setting one engine on fire . Although four of the crew managed to parachute to safety ( including Medal of Honor hero First Lieutenant John C . Morgan ) , eight of the others were killed when the bomber exploded . In May 1945 the group dropped food to the starving Dutch population in the Netherlands as part of Operation Chowhound . The 385th suffered the last enemy action in the European part of the war . On 2 May 1945 , a B - 17 of the 385th BG was struck by enemy ground fire while on Operation Chowhound but returned safely to base . This was the last credited combat mission of the war . After V - E Day , the 385th Bomb Group hauled displaced French slave laborers from Austria to France . It redeployed to the United States in June and August 1945 . The aircraft left between 19 June , and 29 June 1945 . the ground unit left on 4 August 1945 , and sailed on the " Queen Elizabeth " from Greenock on 5 August 1945 . They arrived in New York on 11 August 1945 . Group was then established at Sioux Falls AAF , South Dakota and inactivated on 28 August 1945 . Cold War . The origins of the 385th Strategic Aerospace Wing began on 15 August 1959 when Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) activated the 566th Strategic Missile Squadron ( SMS ) at Offutt AFB and assigned it to Second Air Force . The squadron was equipped with SM - 65 Atlas - Ds . Six weeks later , on 1 October 1959 , SAC established the 4321st Strategic Wing ( SW ) at Offutt and assigned it to the 17th Air Division ( later Strategic Aerospace Division ) as an operational headquarters for the 566th and for the 34th Air Refueling Squadron , flying Boeing KC - 135 Stratotanker s . The 34th had been stationed at Offutt since the fall of 1958 , but was assigned to a wing located at Whiteman AFB , Missouri . The wing ' s missiles were maintained on alert and ready for combat . The 4321st ( and later the 385th ) continued to maintain an alert commitment until inactivating . In August 1962 , the 4321st was reassigned to the 818th Strategic Aerospace Division . However , SAC Strategic Wings could not carry a permanent history or lineage and SAC looked for a way to make its Strategic Wings permanent . In 1962 , in order to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive bombardment units with illustrious World War II records , Headquarters SAC received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its Major Command controlled ( MAJCON ) strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activate Air Force controlled ( AFCON ) units , most of which were inactive at the time which could carry a lineage and history . As a result the 4321st SW was replaced by the newly constituted 385th Strategic Aerospace Wing ( SAW ) , which assumed its mission , personnel , and equipment on 1 January 1963 . In the same way the 549th Strategic Missile Squadron , one of the unit ' s World War II historical bomb squadrons , replaced the 566th SMS . The 34th Air Refueling Squadron was reassigned to the 385th . Because the new organization controlled a combination of aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missile s it added " Aerospace " to the 4321st ' s designation . The 385th SAW continued to conduct strategic air refueling operations and maintain ICBM readiness to meet SAC commitments . The wing served as a deterrent force and also supported SAC ' s global air refueling mission . It was inactivated on 15 December 1964 . Lineage . 385th Bombardment Group 385th Strategic Wing Components . Squadrons References . Bibliography . Further Reading