452d Air Mobility Wing The 452d Air Mobility Wing ( 452 AMW ) is an Air Reserve Component ( ARC ) of the United States Air Force . It is assigned to the Fourth Air Force , Air Force Reserve Command , stationed at March Air Reserve Base , California . If mobilized , the Wing is gained by the Air Mobility Command . During World War II , its predecessor unit , the 452d Bombardment Group ( Heavy ) was an Eighth Air Force B - 17 Flying Fortress unit in England , stationed at RAF Deopham Green . 1st Lieutenant Donald J . Gott and 2nd Lieutenant William E . Metzger , Jr were both awarded the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions . Overview . The 452d Air Mobility Wing ’ s mission is to organize , train and equip aircrews to provide air refueling and strategic airlift any time , any place . The wing ’ s aircraft operate under widely varying situations ranging from small movements in battle to large movements over long distances . Units . The 452d Air Mobility Wing consists of the following major units : History . Trained in the Reserve as a light bombardment wing , 1949 – 1950 . Ordered to active service under the command of Brigadier General Luther W . Sweetser during the Korean War on 10 August 1950 , absorbing most of the personnel of the sister 448th Bombardment Wing also training at Long Beach training center at that time to fill vacant positions in the 452nd . Upon mobilization , the 452d Bombardment Wing moved its B - 26s and support aircraft to George AFB , California , and began accelerated aircrew training . Korean War . On 15 October 15 , 1950 , the first of five echelons of the 452d left George AFB for Itazuke AB , Kyushu , Japan . As projected , now trained in night operations , the 731st Bombardment Squadron was detached to the 3d Bombardment Wing ( Light ) at Iwakuni AB , Honshu , Japan . The First B - 26 of the 452d arrived at Itazuke on 25 October , and two days later the wing flew its initial B - 26 interdiction mission to Korea , exactly seventy - seven days after recall . On the last day of the month , the aircrews of the 452d learned they were in a real shooting war , as three Yakovlev fighters jumped one of their B - 26s and a Mosquito controller near Yangsi . The B - 26 crew shot down one of the Soviet - designed fighters , and the P - 51s arrived to destroy the other two . Upon arrival in the theater , the 452d Bombardment Wing was the only B - 26 unit conducting daylight operations . Until June 1951 , it gave close support to ground units in Korea and engaged in interdiction of communist - heldairfields , supply lines , and bridges , reaching peak operations in February 1951 . The wing moved to Miho AB at Honshu , Japan , on 10 December , and within a few days it suffered its first combat losses . Four B - 26s and all their crews were lost , only one to hostile fire . One aircraft hit a cable on a power line during a low - level attack , a second flew into a mountain on takeoff in a snow squall , and a third dove out of the overcast into water . The fourth was knocked down by ground fire near Sunchon , Korea . The 3 men in that crew parachuted free , but shortly after were captured and executed by unknown North Korean Guerillas . On 25 April 1951 , the enemy began a spring offensive , and Fifth Air Force required an extensive effort of the 452d . For the next eight days the wing dispatched thirty to thirty - six sorties a day , getting maximum use from the approximately eighteen aircraft available each day . This required a refuel and rearm turnaround mission for each aircraft each day . The effort placed a heavy flying burden on all combat personnel as each crew was required to fly nine of ten days . As their effort began to exhaust the combat crews , pilots and observers serving in wing staff and support positions were pressed into service . This surge in operations also produced a sharp increase in maintenance activity as the aircraft sustained extensive battle damage . Three B - 26s were lost behind enemy lines , and four others , only one of which was salvaged , sustained major battle damage . The B - 26s were effective in low - level attacks with machine guns , rockets , and bombs , but their crews found it difficult to maneuver at low altitudes in the small valleys of Korea , walled by hills rising from 500 to 5 , 000 feet . The moment of level flying needed to launch bombs and fire rockets made the light bombers vulnerable to ground fire , and combat losses soon forced them to bomb from medium altitudes . For its combat actions between 9 July 1951 - 27 November 1951 and 28 November 1951 - 30 April 1952 the wing received the Distinguished Unit Citation ( DUC ) , now known as the Presidential Unit Citation ( PUC ) with a bronze star indicating a 2nd award . The only combat wing to be cited twice during the Korean War . Korean President Syngman Rhee personally presented the Wing with the Korean Unit Citation In addition it received credit for 8 campaign participations . 731st Bombardment Squadron . The 452d ' s separated 731st Squadron completed its move from George AFB to Iwakuni AB , Honshu , on 20 November 1950 . Four crews which had left George AFB as an advance echelon on 15 September participated in combat during October , and the unit put up its first complete squadron mission on 14 November 1950 . From the beginning of operations in Korea , the Air Force had been unable to attack moving targets at night . On 6 September 1950 , General Vandenberg suggested that General Stratemeyer convert the 3d Group completely to night attack and assign the 731st Squadron , especially trained for low - level operations , to the understrength 3d Group . General Stratemeyer quickly implemented this solution to his night - attack problem . During its seven - month Korean tour , the 731st flew more than 9 , 000 hours of combat on 2 , 000 combat sorties . Its missions included high - , medium - , and low - level visual and radar bombing , front - line close support , flare drops , and armed reconnaissance - all under conditions of darkness . When the 3d Bombardment Wing was brought up to full strength by the acquisition of the 90th Bombardment Squadron as a third active force unit , the 731st was inactivated at Iwakuni on 25June 1951 . On 10 May 1952 , having served its prescribed twenty - one months , the 452d Bombardment Wing was relieved from active military service , and was inactivated at Pusan East ( K - 9 ) Air Base . The reservists had accumulated nearly 14 , 000 combat sorties during its active service . Control of the unit was returned to the control of the Continental Air Command as an Air Force Reserve organization . Cold War . Activated on 13 June 1952 , absorbing the resources of the 921st Reserve Training Wing . Trained as a tactical reconnaissance wing , 1952 – 1955 ; as a tactical bombardment wing , 1955 – 1957 ; as a troop carrier wing , 1957 – 1966 ; as a military airlift wing , 1966 – 1972 ; as a tactical airlift wing , 1972 – 1976 . From 1957 to 1976 the 452d participated in troop carrier and airlift joint training exercises with ground forces and performed routing , special transport , and humanitarian missions within the U . S . In the early 1960s began flying missions to Alaska , including airlift support for exercises and humanitarian relief missions for the 1964 Alaska earthquake . Airlifted troops and cargo to the Dominican Republic during the 1965 contingency operation ( Power Pack ) to restore a stable government there . In 1965 began flying airlift missions worldwide , but especially to the Far East and Southeast Asia . Was the base host organization at Hamilton AFB , 1 October 1973 – December 1975 . Converted to an air refueling mission in 1976 , the first reserve wing to directly support Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) bombers . From 1977 participated in tanker task forces worldwide . On 1 October 1977 a wing squadron ( 336th ) began standing permanent alert duty with the active duty bombardment wing at March AFB , a duty which continued until cancellation of SAC alert on 27 September 1991 . Won the wing navigation trophy at the SAC Bombing and Navigation Competitions in 1983 and 1985 and the Saunders Trophy in 1985 . Deployed aircraft and volunteer aircrews and other personnel to Saudi Arabia in support of Desert Shield , beginning August 1990 . The 336th ARS went on active duty in December 1990 and two squadron aircrews were among the first refuelers to launch on the first day of the Southwest Asia War ( Desert Storm ) against Iraq . Also , the Security Police Flight went on active duty and deployed to Saudi Arabia , February – June 1991 Modern era . On 1 April 1993 , the 445th Military Airlift Wing located at Norton AFB , California , became the first Associate Wing to transition to a " unit - equipped " wing by taking ownership of its own aircraft and resources . The wing ' s two flying squadrons , 729th Airlift Squadron and 730th Airlift Squadron trace their lineage directly to the 729th and 730th Bombardment Squadrons under the 452d Bombardment Wing during World War II . In 1993 , March AFB was selected for realignment . The 445th MAW was transferred from Norton AFB , to March AFB . As part of the Air Force ' s realignment , March ' s two reserve units , the 445th MAW was inactivated and and its personnel and equipment transferred to the 452d ARW , which was redesignated the 452d Air Mobility Wing on 1 April 1994 . On 1 April 1996 , March officially became March Air Reserve Base . In 2005 , the wing retired its C - 141 fleet .