397th Bombardment Wing The 397th Bombardment Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit , last assigned to the Strategic Air Command 45th Air Division . It was last stationed at Dow Air Force Base , Maine , and was inactivated on 25 April 1968 . It ' s bestowed predecessor unit , the 397th Bombardment Group was a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat organization . It deployed to Western Europe with Ninth Air Force as a medium bombardment unit equipped with B - 26 Marauder s . It returned to the United States during December 1945 , being inactivated on 6 January 1946 . Reactivated in 1962 , the 397th Bombardment Wing was a component organization of Strategic Air Command ' s deterrent force during the Cold War , as a strategic bombardment wing . It was inactivated with the closure of Dow AFB . History . World War II . Constituted as 397th Bombardment Group ( Medium ) on 20 March 1943 . Activated on 20 April 1943 . Trained with B - 26 ' s . Moved to RAF Gosfield England , March – April 1944 , and assigned to Ninth Air Force , however . no sooner had they arrived than they were moved on to RAF Rivenhall . The group ' s identification marking was a yellow diagonal band across both sides of the vertical tailplane . Over the next few days , more than 60 ' bare metal ' B - 26s were to be seen on the Rivenhall hardstands . Although fresh from the training grounds in south - eastern United States , and having only reached the UK early in April . the 347th undertook its first combat mission on 20 April : an attack on a Pas de Calais V - 1 site . During its tenure of Rivenhall the 397th undertook 56 bombing missions , 32 of them attacks on bridges . Other targets were enemy airfields , rail junctions , fuel and ammunition stores , V - weapon sites and various military installations in France and the Low Countries . During these missions a total of 16 B - 26s were missing in action and several others wrecked in crash - landings at the base . Early in August , officially on the 5th , the 397th transferred from Rivenhall to RAF Hurn in Hampshire , to give the Marauders a better radius of action as the break - out of the Allied forces from the Normandy beachhead meant that potential targets were receding . Although moving from Rivenhall , the group arrived without ceasing operations and flew 72 missions from Hurn before moving to the Advanced Landing Ground at Gorges , France ( A - 26 ) on 19 August , with the last departures on the 30th and 31st . Three Marauders were lost during the month ' s stay . On the continent , the 397th struck enemy positions at St Malo and Brest and bombed targets in the Rouen area as Allied armies swept across the Seine and advanced to the Siegfried Line . The group began flying missions into Germany in September , attacking such targets as bridges , defended areas , and storage depots . The 397th struck the enemy ' s communications during the Battle of the Bulge ( December 1944 – January 1945 ) and received a Distinguished Unit Citation for a mission on 23 December 1944 when the group withstood heavy flak and fighter attack to sever a railway bridge at Eller , a vital link in the enemy ' s supply line across the Moselle . The group continued to support the Allied drive into Germany until April 1945 , being stationed at Venlo , Holland ( Y - 55 ) on VE - Day . It returned to the United States during December 1945 – January 1946 , being inactivated at Camp Kilmer , New Jersey on 6 January 1946 . Strategic Air Command . On 1 August 1958 , Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) organized the 4038th Strategic Wing at Dow AFB , Maine and assigned it to the 820th Air Division in January 1959 as part of SAC ' s plan to disperse its Boeing B - 52 Stratofortress heavy bomber s over a larger number of bases , thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike . The wing remained a headquarters only until 1 February 1960 when the 4060th Air Refueling Wing was discontinued and its support organizations transferred to the 4038th in addition to the 71st and 341st Air Refueling Squadron s , flying Boeing KC - 97 s . Fifteen days later the 341st Bombardment Squadron ( BS ) moved to Dow from its previous station at Blytheville AFB , Arkansas where it had been one of the three squadrons assigned to the 97th Bombardment Wing and re - equipped with 15 B - 52Gs . Half of the aircraft were maintained on fifteen minute alert , fully fueled , armed , and ready for combat . In April 1961 , the wing was transferred to the control of the 6th Air Division . In 1962 , the wing bomber s began to be equipped with the GAM - 77 Hound Dog and the GAM - 72 Quail air - launched cruise missiles , The 4038th Airborne Missile Maintenance Squadron was activated in November to maintain these missiles . 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 controlling combat squadron , which could not carry a permanent history or lineage , and to activate Air Force controlled ( AFCON ) units to replace them , time which could carry a lineage and history . As a result the 4038th SW was replaced by the 397th Bombardment Wing , Heavy ( 397th BW ) , which assumed its mission , personnel , and equipment on 1 February 1963 . In the same way the 864th Bombardment Squadron , one of the unit ' s World War II historical bomb squadrons , replaced the 341st BS . The 860th Medical Group , 57th Munitions Maintenance Squadron and the two air refueling squadrons were reassigned to the 397th . Component support units were replaced by units with numerical designation of the newly established wing . Under the Dual Deputate organization , all flying and maintenance squadrons were directly assigned to the wing , so no operational group element was activated . Therefore the history , lineage and honors of the 397th Bombardment Group were temporarily bestowed upon the newly established wing upon activation . The 397th Bomb Wing continued to conduct strategic bombardment training and air refueling operations to meet operational commitments of Strategic Air Command , including deployments to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War . The wing ' s refueling elements changed when the 341st Air Refueling Squadron inactivated in the fall of 1963 , while the 71st traded in its KC - 97s for Boeing KC - 135 Stratotanker s the following spring . By 1968 , Intercontinental ballistic missile s ( ICBM ) had been deployed and become operational as part of the United States ' strategic triad , and the need for B - 52s had been reduced . In addition , funds were also needed to cover the costs of combat operations in Indochina . The 397th Bombardment Wing was inactivated on 25 April 1968 and its aircraft were reassigned to other SAC units . As part of the inactivation , Dow AFB was closed . Lineage . 397th Bombardment Group 397th Bombardment Wing References . Bibliography . Further Reading