96th Test Wing

The 96th Test Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Test Center of Air Force Materiel Command at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The wing was activated at Eglin in 1994 as the 96th Air Base Wing, the headquarters for all support units on Eglin, the largest installation in the Air Force. In 2012, it absorbed the mission and resources of the 46th Test Wing and added the mission of testing and evaluating weapons, navigation and guidance systems and command and control systems.

The wing's first predecessor was organized during World War II as the 96th Bombardment Group. After training in the United States, the group flew Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses from England. The group led the first shuttle mission to Regensburg on 17 August 1943. The group earned two Distinguished Unit Citations for its combat performance. After VE Day, the group returned to the United States and was inactivated. The group was briefly active in the Air Force Reserve from 1947 until 1949.

The 96th Bombardment Wing was activated in 1953 at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma and received Boeing B-47 Stratojet bombers the following year as a component of Strategic Air Command's deterrent force. In 1957 the wing moved to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas where it converted to the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress in 1963 and the Rockwell B-1 Lancer in 1985. The wing also operated air refueling aircraft, and during the early 1960s was assigned a squadron of intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 1984, the World War II group was consolidated with the wing. The wing was inactivated in 1993 and its mission, personnel and equipment were transferred to the 7th Bomb Wing, which moved on paper to Dyess when Carswell Air Force Base became a reserve installation.

Mission

The 96th Test Wing performs developmental test and evaluation for Air Force weapons while also providing support for all other units on Eglin Air Force Base as the installation host wing. Eglin is the Department of Defense's largest Air Force installation. Supported units include three wings, the Armament Systems Directorate, nine operating locations, five detachments and more than 25 associate units.

Units

96th Cyberspace Test Group
: The group plans and executes Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) of Command and Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and Cyber Systems.
* 96th Operations Group
: The group conducts developmental testing and evaluation of conventional munitions, command and control systems, McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II avionics, and navigation and guidance systems.
* 96th Maintenance Group
: The group manages and maintains 41 modified test aircraft.
* 96th Test Group
: The group is located at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. It operates test facilities for high speed sled track testing, navigation and guidance system testing, radar signature measurements, weapon systems flight testing, and Air Force liaison for all AF programs tested at White Sands Missile Range. The group's Operating Location AA at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico is responsible for directed energy and high energy laser testing and Operating Location AC at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, performs landing gear and aircraft survivability tests.
* 96th Mission Support Group
: The group provides fuels, supply, transportation, ground combat training, security, communication, personnel, education, family services, lodging, food service, recreation and logistics planning and deployment support to approximately 20,000 military and civilian personnel and 43,000 retirees. It also deploys combat ready forces in support of worldwide contingency operations.
* 96th Civil Engineer Group
: The group provides engineering forces to operate and maintain the physical plant, infrastructure, facilities and systems, housing, and the environment, and maintains 11.6 million square feet of physical plant and 3,256 facilities.
* 96th Range Group
: The group operates the Eglin Gulf Test Range, which consists of approximately 120,000 square miles of overwater airspace, covering the eastern third of the Gulf of Mexico from the Florida Panhandle to the Florida Keys. The land range covers 724 square miles and contains 70 specific test and training areas, including an approved depleted uranium test range and the only qualified air-to-ground supersonic range east of the Mississippi River.
* 96th Medical Group
: The group manages and provides health care for 83,000 eligible beneficiaries. It operates a community-based teaching hospital with graduate level programs in family practice, general dentistry and other medical disciplines.

History

World War II

The group was first activated in July 1942 at Salt Lake City Army Air Base, Utah as the 96th Bombardment Group, with the 337th, 338th, 339th and 413th Bombardment SquadronsThe 413th Squadron was constituted as the 23d Reconnaissance Squadron, but was redesignated before it was made active. Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 505. assigned as its original components.Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', pp. 416–417Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', pp. 417–418Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', pp. 419–420Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 505 After moving to Gowen Field, Idaho the group received its initial cadre. The group trained at various bases in the northwestern United States.

In November 1942 the group moved to Pocatello Army Air Base, Idaho, where it acted as an Operational Training Unit (OTU). OTUs were oversized parent units that provided cadres to form "satellite groups."Maurer, ''Combat Units'' pp. 165–166 In early 1943, the 96th relocated to Pyote Army Air Base, Texas, where it resumed its combat training. In April 1943 the group began its overseas movement. The air echelon ferried its bombers via the North Atlantic Ferry Route, while the ground echelon proceeded to the New York Port of Embarkation and sailed on the for Greenock, Scotland.Freeman, p. 246

The group arrived at RAF Grafton Underwood England in May 1943, for duty with Eighth Air Force. The group was assigned to the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing of the 3d Bombardment Division. The group commenced combat operations on 14 May with an attack on Kortrijk (Courtrai), after an aborted mission the previous day. The 96th moved east at the end of May to RAF Andrews Field. The 96th appears to have only carried out one mission while based at Andrews. On 29 May 1943 they took part in a raid on Rennes naval storage depot from which one B-17 failed to return. However, Eighth Air Force was not pleased with the initial performance of the Martin B-26 Marauder units assigned to it and decided to move them from their bases in north Suffolk to stations nearer the continent. As the first step in this move, the 386th Bombardment Group left its base at RAF Snetterton Heath for RAF Boxted. The 96th took the 386th's place at Snetterton Heath the following day, leaving its previous base available for the 322d Bombardment Group.

As the most conveniently reached station from 3d Air Division Headquarters at Elveden Hall, Snetterton Heath units often led to major operations carrying commanding generals. General Curtis LeMay led the Regensburg shuttle mission to North Africa flying out of this base, and the group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for withstanding severe assaults by enemy fighters. The 96th also led the 3d Division on the Schweinfurt mission of 14 October 1943. In addition, the 96th attacked shipyards, harbors, railway yards, aerodromes, oil refineries, aircraft factories, and other industrial targets in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

The 96th received another Distinguished Unit Citation for leading the 45th Wing a great distance through heavy clouds and intense flak to raid important aircraft component factories in Poland on 9 April 1944. Other significant targets attacked by the group included airfields at Bordeaux and Augsburg; marshalling yards at Kiel, Hamm, Brunswick, and Gdynia; aircraft factories at Chemnitz, Hanover, and Diósgyőr; oil refineries at Merseburg and Brüx, and chemical works in Wiesbaden, Ludwigshafen, and Neunkirchen.

In addition to its strategic operations, the 96th was occasionally diverted to support ground forces. These missions included bombing coastal defenses, railway bridges, gun emplacements, and field batteries in the battle area prior to and during D-Day in June 1944. It attacked enemy positions to support the breakthrough at Saint-Lô. In the early months of 1945, the group struck lines of communications supplying German armies on the western front.

After V-E Day, the 96th flew food to the Netherlands and transported redeploying personnel to French Morocco, Northern Ireland, France, and Germany. the group was programmed to move to Germany for occupation duty. However, plans were revised in September 1945. In November 1945 its aircraft were flown back to the United States or transferred to other units. Two of its squadrons were inactivated in late November and the others in mid-December. The group headquarters' remaining personnel left Snetterton Heath, sailing on the on 12 December and arriving at Camp Kilmer New Jersey on 20 December 1945, where it was inactivated the following day.

Air Force Reserve

The 96th Bombardment Group was activated as a reserve unit under Air Defense Command (ADC) on 29 May 1947 at Gunter Field, Alabama. It was initially assigned three of its World War II units, the 337th Bombardment Squadron, located at Gunter, and the 338th and 339th Bombardment Squadrons, stationed at Hawkins Field in Mississippi. In July, it added three additional squadrons, the 413th Bombardment Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi, the 546th Bombardment Squadron at Lovell Field in Tennessee, and the 547th Bombardment Squadron at Smith Reynolds Airport in North Carolina. In October, however, the two squadrons at Jackson were transferred to the 384th Bombardment Group.

At Gunter, the group conducted routine training activities under the supervision of the 476th AAF Base Unit (later the 2586th Air Force Reserve Training Center). President Truman's reduced 1949 defense budget required reductions in the number of units in the Air Force, and the 96th Group and 2586th Center were inactivated in July 1949 and not replaced as flying operations at Gunter ceased.

Strategic Air Command

The 96th Bombardment Wing was activated in November 1953 at Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma. Wing headquarters and most of the wing components were not manned until March 1954; those components were controlled by the 96th Air Base Group, whose commander served additional duty as the 96th's wing commander. The wing soon received Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters and began air refueling operations in March 1954.

The wing began training with Boeing B-47E Stratojet swept-wing medium bombers, capable of flying at high subsonic speeds, in April 1955 in support of SAC's global commitments. It deployed to Andersen Air Force Base Guam from January through April 1957. The wing joined the 341st Bombardment Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas on 8 September 1957.

The 4th Strategic Support Squadron, a strategic airlift squadron flying Douglas C-124 Globemaster IIs, moved to Dyess from Ellsworth Air Force Base in 1957. It was assigned to the wing from September 1959 until it was inactivated in March 1961. The wing added intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear strike force when the 578th Strategic Missile Squadron, with Convair SM-65 Atlas missiles joined the wing in July 1961. The first Atlas missile went on alert in April 1962. The wing's Atlases were phased out in March 1965.
Wing emblem during SAC era, surrounded by a bordure in the colors of the SAC riband">thumb