521st Air Mobility Operations Wing

521st Air Mobility Operations Wing
Active	1942–1947; 1949-18 November 1960; 2008 – Present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Logistics Coordination
Size	1800 airmen permanently assigned plus 900 deployed to wing
Part of	Air Mobility Command ; Eighteenth Air Force ; United States Air Force Expeditionary Center
Garrison/HQ	Ramstein Air Base
Engagements	European theater of World War II
Decorations	Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Commanders
Current; commander	Colonel Thomas Cooper[1]

The 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing (AMOW) is part of Air Mobility Command and is stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It coordinates logistical air movements into, out of, and through Europe.

The 521st AMOW expedites warfighting and humanitarian efforts by the United States Air Force throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. It provides all command and control, en route maintenance support and air transportation services for air mobility operations in its area of responsibility.[2] It performs this through aircraft maintenance units, maintenance operations centers, quality assurance, regional training center, fuel cell, aerospace ground equipment, forward supply location, and maintenance recovery teams. It operates air terminal operations centers, providing passenger and fleet services, cargo processing, special handling, ramp services, and load planning.[2]

The Wing is composed of two groups.[3] These groups are assigned twelve squadrons and fourteen other geographically separated units.[2]

History

The wing was originally constituted as the 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion. The unit served as an aircraft warning unit in defense of the continental United States from 1942 to 1943. The battalion moved to England in 1944 where it provided communications support until the day after the Normandy landings when it moved to support the invading forces in France. It moved frequently to support elements of Ninth Air Force, arriving in Belgium in September and Germany in March 1945. It continued it mission during the occupation of Germany from 1945.[4] At the end of 1945, the battalion was converted to an Air Corps unit, redesignated the 501st Tactical Control Group[4] and its component companies replaced by Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons. It provided radar coverage and navigational aid to allied aircraft flying over the U.S. Zone of Occupied Germany in 1946 and 1947. It was inactivated in 1947.

The unit was reactivated as the 501st Aircraft Control and Warning Group in 1949 to replace the 7402d Aircraft Control and Warning Group.[5] Between 1949 and 1960, it provided tactical control systems, including aircraft control and warning facilities, passive detection devices and guidance units in central Europe.[4] In 1952, it became a tactical control group again. In 1954, the group moved to Landstuhl Air Base. Starting in 1955, it and the 526th Tactical Control Group provided personnel for a provisional Tactical Control Wing, which it replaced as the 501st Tactical Control Wing in 1957 to provide radar and aircraft control for all of Twelfth Air Force.[6] It operated the Tactical Control System to exercise operational control of offensive and defensive units in Europe.[7] In the 1960s, its mission, personnel, and equipment were combined with those of the 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, which was redesignated the 86th Air Division (Defense).[8]

Today the two subordinate groups include:

The 521st Air Mobility Operations Group
- 725th Air Mobility Squadron (Naval Station Rota, Spain)[9]
- 728th Air Mobility Squadron
- 5th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron
- 8th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron
The 721st Air Mobility Group
- 721st Mobility Support Squadron
- 721st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
- 724th Air Mobility Squadron
- 726th Air Mobility Squadron
- 727th Air Mobility Squadron
- 721st Aerial Port Squadron

Lineage

Constituted as the 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion (Separate) on 28 February 1942

Activated on 4 July 1942

Redesignated as 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion on 11 March 1943

Converted from the Signal Corps to the Air Corps and redesignated 501st Tactical Control Group on 31 December 1945

Inactivated on 25 September 1947

Redesignated 501st Aircraft Control and Warning Group on 11 May 1949

Activated on 10 June 1949

Redesignated 501st Tactical Control Group on 16 March 1952

Redesignated 501st Tactical Control Wing on 18 December 1957

Inactivated on 18 November 1960

Redesignated 521st Tactical Control Wing 31 July 1985 (remained inactive)
Redesignated 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing on 18 August 2008

Activated on 4 September 2008[4]

Assignments

III Fighter Command, 4 July 1942
Aircraft Warning Unit Training Center, 8 October 1942
70th Fighter Wing, December 1943
IX Tactical Air Command, 13 September 1944
70th Fighter Wing, 22 February 1945
XXIX Tactical Air Command, 19 July 1945
70th Fighter Wing, 6 August 1945
XII Tactical Air Command, 15 November 1945

51st Troop Carrier Wing, 25 July 1947 – 25 September 1947
United States Air Forces in Europe, 10 June 1949
2d Air Division, 10 October 1949
Twelfth Air Force, 1 August 1951
United States Air Forces in Europe, 1 January 1957
Seventeenth Air Force, 15 November 1959 – 18 November 1960
21st Expeditionary Mobility Task Force, 4 September 2008[4]
United States Air Force Expeditionary Center Spring 2012[10]

Stations

Drew Field, Florida, 4 July 1942
Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts, 20 November 1943 – 28 December 1943 (Port of Embarkation)
Popham Airfield, England, 7 January 1944
RAF Boxted (Station 150), England, 2 February 1944
RAF Ibsley (Station 347), England, 18 April 1944
Plymouth, England, 19 May 1944 – 6 June 1944
Vierville-sur-Mer, France, 7 June 1944
Cricqueville-en-Bessin (A-2), France, 2 July 1944
Villedieu-les-Poêles, France, 5 August 1944
Le Teilleul, France, 14 August 1944
Aillieres, France, 23 August 1944
Les Loges-en-Josas, France, 31 August 1944
Paris, France, 4 September 1944
Ham-sur-Heure-Nalinnes, Belgium, 16 September 1944

Verviers, Belgium, 26 September 1944
Gosselies (A-87), Belgium, 18 December 1944
Verviers, Belgium, 7 January 1945
Brühl, Germany, 23 March 1945
Bad Wildungen, Germany, 11 April 1945
Göttingen, Germany, 12 April 1945
Nohra, Germany, 26 April 1945
Fritzlar (Y-86), Germany, 25 June 1945
Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base (R-72), Germany, 19 July 1945
Bad Kissingen, Germany, 3 February 1946
Wiesbaden Air Base (Y-80), 5 July 1947 – 25 September 1947
Zwingenberg, Germany, 10 June 1949
Landsberg Air Base (R-54), Germany, 17 July 1945
Kaiserslautern, Germany, 23 September 1952
Landstuhl AB (later Ramstein-Landstuhl AB, Ramstein AB, Germany, 17 November 1954 – 18 November 1960[4]
Ramstein Air Base, Germany, 18 August 2008 – present[4]

Components

Groups

521st Air Mobility Operations Group, 18 August 2008 – present
721st Air Mobility Operations Group, 18 August 2008 – present

Squadrons

3d SHORAN Beacon Squadron,[6] 18 December 1957 – 1 May 1958

Bremerhaven, Germany

6th SHORAN Beacon Squadron,[6] 18 December 1957 – 1 May 1958
601st Tactical Control Squadron (Formed from Company A, 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion, later 601st Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron),[6] 31 December 1945 – 25 September 1947, 10 June 1949 – 18 November 1960 (detached to Tactical Control Wing, Provisional 1955–1957)

Rothwesten AB, Germany

602d Tactical Control Squadron (Formed from Company B, 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion, later 602d Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron),[6] 31 December 1945 – 25 September 1947, 10 June 1949 – 18 November 1960 (detached to Tactical Control Wing, Provisional 1955–1957)

Giebelstadt AB, Germany

603d Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron (Formed from Company C, 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion, later 603d Tactical Control Squadron, 603d Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron),[6] 31 December 1945 – 25 September 1947, 10 June 1949 – 18 November 1960 (detached to Tactical Control Wing, Provisional 1955–1957)

Langerkopf, Germany

604th Tactical Control Squadron (Formed from Company D, 555th Signal Aircraft Warning Battalion, later 604th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron),[6] 31 December 1945 – 25 September 1947, 10 June 1949 – 18 November 1960 (detached to Tactical Control Wing, Provisional 1955–1957)

Freising AB, Germany

615th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron, Fixed,[6] 18 December 1957 – 18 November 1960

Schonfeld, Germany[6]

616th Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron, 18 December 1957 – 18 November 1960

Ulm, Germany; Turkheim, Germany[11]

619th Tactical Control Squadron,[6] 18 December 1957 – 18 January 1959

Birkenfeld, Germany

807th Tactical Control Squadron,[6] 1 August 1951 – 18 November 1960

Awards

Air Force Outstanding Unit Award[12]

1 October 2008 – 30 September 2009

Normandy

Northern France

Ardennes-Alsace

Central Europe

Rhineland

World War II Army of Occupation[4]

Notes

"Colonel Thomas M. Cooper". 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing Public Affairs. June 2016. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
"521st Air Mobility Operations Wing". 521st Air Mobility Operations Wing Public Affairs. 20 June 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
Saldukas, Scott (10 September 2008). "Wing activation of the 521st AMOW". 435th Air Base Wing Public Affairs. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
Robertson, Patsy (11 September 2008). "521 Air Mobility Operations Wing (AMC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
"Abstract, History of the 501st Aircraft Warning & Control Group, July–August 1951". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
"Abstract, History of the 501st Tactical Control Wing, January–June 1957". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
"Abstract, History of the 501st Tactical Control Wing, Calendar Year 1958". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
"Abstract, History of the 86th Air Division, July–December 1960". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
Haulman, Daniel (26 April 2011). "725 Air Mobility Squadron (AMC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
"Air Mobility Command". Air Mobility Command. 29 July 2016. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
"Abstract, History of the 501st Tactical Control Wing, January–June 1959". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
"Air Force Recognition Programs". Air Force Personnel Center. Retrieved 20 December 2012. (search)

Bibliography

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

Anderson, Capt. Barry (1985). Army Air Forces Stations: A Guide to the Stations Where U.S. Army Air Forces Personnel Served in the United Kingdom During World War II (PDF). Maxwell AFB, AL: Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2012. (for designation of airfields in the United Kingdom)
Johnson, 1st Lt. David C. (1988). U.S. Army Air Forces Continental Airfields (ETO) D-Day to V-E Day (PDF). Maxwell AFB, AL: Research Division, USAF Historical Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2016. (for designation of airfields in France, Belgium, and Germany)
Ravenstein, Charles A. (1984). Air Force Combat Wings, Lineage & Honors Histories 1947–1977. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-912799-12-9. (86th Air Division organization)