450th Bombardment Group The 450th Fighter - Day Group is an inactive United States Air Force unit . It was last assigned to the 450th Fighter - Day Wing of Tactical Air Command ( TAC ) at Foster AFB , Texas . It was inactivated on 11 December 1957 . The 450th Bombardment Group was originally activated in 1943 and saw combat during World War II as a B - 24 Liberator heavy bombardment group under Fifteenth Air Force in Italy . The unit received two Distinguished Unit Citation s in support of the invasion of Southern France , the advance of Russian troops in the Balkans , and the Allied effort in Italy . It was inactivated in October 1945 . The group was reactivated as a fighter unit briefly in the 1950s under Tactical Air Command ( TAC ) at Foster AFB , Texas , where it replaced a flying training unit . It was the first USAF combat group to fly the North American F - 100 Super Sabre . History . World War II . The 450th Bombardment Group ( Heavy ) was constituted on 6 April 1943 and activated on 1 May 1943 at Gowen Field , Idaho . The new group was moved without personnel or equipment to a temporary station at Clovis Army Air Field , New Mexico on 21 May 1943 where the command and headquarters of the group was assembled . On 5 July 1943 , the group was reassigned to Alamogordo Army Airfield , which was to house the Group for all phases of training with their Consolidated B - 24 Liberator bombers . When the group was finally assembled for the first time at Alamogordo , many of the key positions in both the group and squadrons had been filled . Both officers and men arrived daily and little by little all sections were built up to full strength . Crews were allotted in groups of eight , twelve and forty - six bringing the strength finally on 24 August 1943 to seventy or full strength . After training was completed , the 450th was reassigned to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations ( MTO ) in Southern Italy , arriving arriving in December 1943 . It began operations with Fifteenth Air Force in January 1944 and engaged chiefly in missions against strategic targets in Italy , France , Germany , Austria , Czechoslovakia , Hungary , and the Balkans until April 1945 . The group bombed aircraft factories , assembly plants , oil refineries , storage areas , marshalling yard s , airfields , and other objectives . The 450th contributed to the intensive Allied campaign against the enemy aircraft industry during Big Week ( 20 – 25 February 1944 ) by attacking factories at Steyr and Regensburg , being awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation ( DUC ) for braving the hazards of bad weather , enemy fighters , and flak to bombard a Messerschmitt aircraft manufacturing factory at Regensburg on 25 February . The group received a second DUC for a mission on 5 April 1944 when the it fought its way through relentless attacks by enemy aircraft to bomb railroad marshalling yards at Ploesti , Romania . The group also struck such objectives as enemy defenses , troop concentrations , bridges , and marshalling yards in support of the Invasion of southern France . It operated from Poltava Airbase , near Kiev in the Soviet Union , to support the advance of Russian troops in the Balkans as part of Operation Frantic , and supporting the United States Fifth Army in the Allied effort in Italy . The group redeployed to the United States during May . Many personnel were demobilized upon arrival at the port of debarkation ; a small cadre of key personnel was formed and the group was then established at Harvard Army Air Field , Nebraska in July and the unit was redesignated the 450th Bombardment Group , Very Heavy in July and was equipped with Boeing B - 29 Superfortress es and programmed for deployment to the Pacific Theater . The Japanese Capitulation in August made the group redundant to Air Force requirements and the unit was demobilized , and the unit was inactivated on 15 October 1945 . Tactical Air Command . The group was reactivated at Foster AFB , Texas , on 1 July 1954 , where it was assigned to the 450th Fighter - Bomber Wing of Tactical Air Command . Its operational squadrons were initially equipped with the North American F - 86F Sabre . Its aircraft wore an approximation of the stars and stripes , with seven red and six white stripes on the trailing edge , and three stars in white on the blue forward portion of the fin . They also were designated with a colored , scalloped nose chevron . In early 1955 , the 450th began receiving new F - 100C / D Super Sabre aircraft , replacing the older F - 86s . It was the first operational TAC group to be equipped with the F - 100 . With the change of equipment , the group was redesignated as the 450th Fighter - Day Group on 8 March 1955 . At the end of 1957 , it was inactivated and its squadrons were assigned directly to the wing under the Dual Deputate organization .