Country United States | Type Equipment Support | |
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Active 1942–1944, 1949-1951, 1955-1957, 2005-2012 Part of Air Force Materiel Command Decorations Air Force Outstanding Unit Award | ||
The 309th Maintenance Wing is an inactive wing of the United States Air Force last based at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. On July 12, 2012 it was inactivated and its function became part of the newly formed Ogden Air Logistics Complex.
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World War II
The wing was first activated in the early expansion of the Army Air Forces during World War II as the 309th Bombardment Group at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona. Its initial components were the 376th, 377th, and 378th Bombardment Squadrons, and the 37th Reconnaissance Squadron. The group was an Operational Training Unit (OTU), which trained bombardment groups until January 1943. The OTU program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups." It then became a Replacement Training Unit and trained replacement aircrews, using B-25 Mitchell aircraft in both training programs. In addition, the group operated specialist training schools, with as many as eight in operation at once. However, the AAF was finding that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving less well adapted to performing the mission. Accordingly, a more functional system was adopted in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. As a result, in 1944, the group was disbanded and replaced by the 329th Army Air Force Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Medium, Bombardment), which absorbed the mission, material, and personnel of the group. The group's four squadrons became Sections A through D of the Base Unit.
Reserve Airlift Operations
Postwar the group was reconstituted and redesignated as the Continental Air Command reserve 309th Troop Carrier Group. The 309th used the aircraft of the active duty 314th Troop Carrier Wing, to which it was attached for training. The group was transferred to Tactical Air Command in 1950, after which it apparently ceased flying operations. It was inactivated in 1951 and its personnel deployed to Far East Air Forces to support 315th Air Division transport units during the Korean War.
Assault Airlift Operations
The unit was reactivated at Ardmore AFB in 1955. It replaced the 16th Troop Carrier Squadron, which was flying the Air Force's fleet of YC-122 Avitrucs. The group became the first fixed wing assault airlift group in the Air Force and was the first to fly the C-123B. The 309th trained to airlift troops, equipment, and supplies for assault landings. After training with the 463d Troop Carrier Wing, the group deployed to Europe. Less than a year later, the group was inactivated and its squadrons transferred to the 60th Troop Carrier Wing.
Maintenance Wing
The wing remained inactive until Air Force Material Command (AFMC) replaced many of its traditional subordinate command staff agencies with wings, groups, and squadrons in the Air Force Material Command Transformation Initiative. The 309th became the 309th Maintenance Wing and provided depot repair, modification and maintenance for the F-22A Raptor, F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt, C-130 Hercules, and the Peacekeeper and Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. In 2012, AFMC reversed this action in the process of reducing its number of centers and inactivated the wing. On 12 July 2012, all wing components at Hill were absorbed by the Ogden Air Logistics Complex and the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group was reassigned as the wing was inactivated on 1 October.
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