506th Air Expeditionary Group The 506th Air Expeditionary Group ( 506 AEG ) 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 Mustang s 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 . Units . The 506 AEG is composed of : Approximately 1 , 000 active - duty , Reserve , and Air National Guard Airmen were assigned to the 506 AEG during any given Air and Space Expeditionary Force rotation . Additionally , approximately 5 , 000 Soldiers were assigned to Forward - Operating Base Warrior . Among the base agencies the 506 AEG actively supported are : History . World War II . The 506th AEG traces its history back to the 506th Fighter Group , Single Engine , which was established on 5 October 1944 and activated on 21 October 1944 , at Lakeland Army Air Field / Drane Field , Florida . The group consisted of three squadrons : 457th , 458th and the 459th Fighter Squadrons . From its activation , the planned mission of the 506th was very long range ( VLR ) escort missions of B - 29 Superfortress bombers in the Pacific Theater . Flying almost all models P - 51 Mustang which could be sent to Lakeland for training , the group ' s training regiment centered on learning cruise control techniques that would produce maximum range from the Mustangs . It also included practice scrambles , assembly and landing procedures , escort formations , aerial gunnery and bombing practice , and an occasional dogfight . A month after the 506th started flying , the USAAF produced document 50 – 100 , which was the training directive for Very Long Range operations . Fortunately , the group had already met many of the requirements by then , two glaring exceptions being instrument flying and rocket firing . The final weeks of training were concentrated on mastering those tasks . On 19 February 1945 the air echelon of the 506th FG aboard a train bound for California , where the aircraft carrier USS Kalinin Bay was waiting to carry them across the Pacific . The ship delivered the 506th to Guam on 17 March , and a week later the pilots flew their new P - 51D - 20s to Tinian . There they would stay for seven weeks , flying combat air patrols and practice missions while the field engineers on Iwo Jima prepared North Field for them at the northern end of the island . The group was assigned to Twentieth Air Force , which , in turn , attached the unit to VII Fighter Command 301st Fighter Wing . From Tinian the air echelon flew combat patrol missions under the control of Air Defense Command , Saipan , from 28 March to 28 April 1945 . The air echelon joined the ground echelon at Iwo Jima in May 1945 . From Iwo Jima , the 506th ' s squadrons attacked airfields , antiaircraft emplacements , shipping , barracks , radio and radar stations , railway cars , and other targets in the Bonin Islands and Japan . The group also provided air defense of Iwo Jima and escorted B - 29s bombers in raids against Japan . In December 1945 the group moved to Camp Anza , California , and was inactivated 16 December 1945 . Cold War . 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 Thunderjet s . 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 Thunderstreak s , 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 Thunderchief s , 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 . Global War On Terrorism . The 506th was redesignated the 506th Air Expeditionary Group and converted to provisional status on 22 April 2003 , and assigned to Kirkuk AB . The group has been supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom ever since . The 506th Air Expeditionary Group was assigned to Kirkuk Regional Air Base on 23 April 2003 , nearly one month after Operation Iraqi Freedom started . At that time , the group flew A - 10 Thunderbolt s , which flew close air support and focused intelligence , surveillance and reconnaissance missions . The last A - 10 departed the base in the Spring of 2004 .