The 63d Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional unit of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed. No publicly available information indicates it has been active as an expeditionary unit. The wing was last active as the 63d Airlift Wing at Norton Air Force Base, California, where it was inactivated on 1 April 1994.
The wing was first activated as the 63d Troop Carrier Wing in the Air Force Reserve in June 1949, when Continental Air Command reorganized its units under the wing base organizational model. It was ordered into active duty for the Korean War in May 1951 and, after its personnel were used as fillers for other units, inactivated a week later.
It trained in the Air Force Reserve until 1951, initially with trainer aircraft. From the middle of 1950 until it was ordered into active service, the wing performed limited troop carrier operations with Douglas C-47 Skytrains. In May 1951 the wing was ordered into active service, as were all reserve combat wings.[5] Its personnel were used as fillers[6] and its aircraft distributed to other units. The unit was inactivated only a few days after its mobilization.[1][7]
Troop carrier operations
Wing C124 in Lebanon during the 1958 crisis
The wing was activated again as a component of Tactical Air Command (TAC) in 1953. Its tactical components underwent Douglas C-124 Globemaster II training from June through October 1953. When the wing began global airlift missions, including humanitarian missions, using its C-124s as primary carriers.[1]
465th Troop Carrier Group C-119 Flying Boxcars
In October 1953, the 465th Troop Carrier Group, which was training at Donaldson with Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcars and preparing to move to France, was attached to the wing.[1] The 465th Group's parent wing was located in New York without operational aircraft.[8] In November 1953, the group moved to Toul-Rosières Air Base and was reassigned.[1][9] Another C-119 unit at Donaldson, the 64th Troop Carrier Wing was also attached to the 63d Wing in October.[1] The 64th Wing was phasing out in preparation for inactivation,[10] and its flying mission was transferred entirely to its 64th Troop Carrier Group, which was also attached to the 63d Wing.[1] In February 1954, the plan to inactivate the 64th was changed and it was instead to transfer overseas.[10] The 64th Group was reassigned to the 64th Wing, whose attachment ended in March, also ending the 63d Wing's operation of C-119.[1]
In August 1954, TAC increased its C-124 operations on the east coast, moving the 61st Troop Carrier Group from Larson Air Force Base, Washington to Donaldson and attaching it to the wing.[13] When TAC transferred its heavy troop carrier units to MATS, MATS assigned the 61st Group to the wing until the group was inactivated on 8 October 1959.[1]
Notable operations for the wing included airlifts and airdrops in the North American Arctic during construction and subsequent operation of the Distant Early Warning Line between 1954 and 1956. In the same region it supported scientific stations on floating ice islands in the Arctic Ocean from 1957 until 1966. On the other end of the world, it flew airlift and airdrop missions supporting the United States Navy's Operation Deep Freeze in Antarctica from 1956 until 1966. The wing maintained a complete tactical squadron on rotation to Europe between August 1956 and January 1967.[1]
Strategic airlift
Recognizing that its missions focused on strategic airlift, the wing dropped the "troop carrier" designation and became the 63d Military Airlift Wing in January 1966.[1]
Plans to move the wing to Norton Air Force Base, California and equip it with Lockheed C-141 Starlifters were set in motion on 1 July 1966, when Military Airlift Command organized the Military Airlift Wing, Provisional, 63d. For the next nine months, the provisional wing expanded as a full C-141 wing. On 1 April 1967, the wing moved to Norton without personnel or equipment and assumed the mission, personnel and Starlifters of the provisional unit, which was discontinued.[14]
The wing flew airlift missions to the Far East and Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War between 1967 and 1973.[1]
By 1968 regular air force military airlift squadrons were operating the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter, while the reserves still flew the obsolete C-124. As the Globemaster was retired, the Air Force Reserve formed associate units with the C-141. In this program reserve units flew and maintained aircraft owned by an associated regular unit.[15] In March 1968, the 944th Military Airlift Group moved to Norton from March Air Force Base without personnel or equipment and was attached to the wing, flying the regular unit's Starlifters. In July 1973, the associate program was expanded and the 445th Military Airlift Wing replaced the 944th as the reserve associate unit at Norton.[1] The 445th remained an associate of the 63d until 1993, when it was assigned its own aircraft.[citation needed]
These missions included the evacuation of former American prisoners of war from North Vietnam during Operation Homecoming in early 1973. It also supported the airlift of Vietnamese refugees to the United States in Operation New Life during 1975. From 1976 until it inactivated in 1994, the wing commanded airlift and supporting units to airlift troops, cargo, equipment, passengers, mail and aeromedical evacuation/airlift to and from areas around the world.[1]
Lineage
Established as the 63d Troop Carrier Wing, Medium, on 10 May 1949
Activated in the reserve on 27 June 1949
Ordered to active service on 1 May 1951
Inactivated on 9 May 1951
Redesignated 63d Troop Carrier Wing, Heavy on 18 December 1952
Activated on 8 January 1953
Redesignated 63d Military Airlift Wing on 8 January 1966
Redesignated 63d Airlift Wing on 1 January 1992
Inactivated on 1 April 1994
Redesignated 63d Air Expeditionary Wing and converted to provisional status on 12 June 2002[1]
Norton Air Force Base, California, 1 April 1967 – 1 April 1994[1]
Components
Wings
64th Troop Carrier Wing: attached 15 October 1953 – 1 March 1954
445th Military Airlift Wing: attached 1 July 1973 – 1 July 1993[1]
Groups
61st Troop Carrier Group: attached 25 August 1954 – 30 June 1957, assigned 1 July 1957 – 8 October 1959 (attached to Airlift Task Force, Provisional 23 July – c. 15 Sep 1958 )
63d Troop Carrier Group (later 63d Military Airlift Group, 63d Operations Group): 27 June 1949 – 9 May 1951, 20 June 1953 – 18 January 1963, 15 September 1978 – 1 July 1980, 1 January 1992 – c. 1 April 1994[c]
64th Troop Carrier Group: attached 15 October 1953 – 15 February 1954
465th Troop Carrier Group: attached 15 October – 30 November 1953
944th Military Airlift Group: attached 25 March 1968 – 1 July 1973[1]
14th Troop Carrier Squadron (later 14th Military Airlift Squadron): 18 January 1963 – 1 October 1978, 1 July 1980 – 1 January 1992
15th Troop Carrier Squadron (later 15 Military Airlift Squadron): 18 January 1963 – 1 October 1978 (not operational c. February – 14 August 1967); 1 July 1980 – 1 January 1992
21st Helicopter Squadron: attached 9 July 1956 – 30 June 1957
52d Troop Carrier Squadron (later 52d Military Airlift Squadron): 18 January 1963 – 8 January 1967 (attached to 322d Air Division 18 January 1963 – 8 January 1967); 1 June 1988 – 1 January 1992
53d Troop Carrier Squadron (later 53 Military Airlift Squadron): 18 January 1963 – 8 July 1966, 8 January 1972 – 1 October 1978, 1 July 1980 – 1 January 1992
54th Troop Carrier Squadron: 1 July 1957 – 8 October 1959 (attached to 63d Troop Carrier Group after 1 July 1957), 18 January 1963 – 25 January 1965
↑Aircraft is Lockheed C-141B-10-LM Starlifter serial 63-8085, named Spirit of the Inland Empire. Built as a C-141A, shown after being updated to C-141B configuration about 1980/81. Updated to C-141C in 2000. Retired to AMARC as CR0190 14 October 2003.
Knaack, Marcelle Size (1978). Encyclopedia of US Air Force Aircraft and Missile Systems. Vol.2, Post-World War II Bombers 1945–1973. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History. ISBN978-0-912799-59-9.
