List of MAJCOM Wings of the United States Air Force

This is an (incomplete) List of Major Command (MAJCOM) Wings of the United States Air Force.

On the formation of the USAF from the USAAF, most wings were HQ USAF controlled - AFCON - units, with one, two, or three digit designations and continuing histories, which Air Force headquarters retained control over. However, HQ USAF recognised that its major subordinate formations, the Major Commands, needed some organizational flexibility in order to carry out their missions. Thus each command was allocated a block of numbers in a series running from 1000 to 9999 (for example, 3900 to 4399 for Strategic Air Command), and authorised to organise units as required within that block. [ [http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/afhra/rso/guide_usaf_lineage_honors.html A Guide to USAF Lineage and Honors] , Organization History Branch, Air Force Historical Research Agency, accessed April 2008] These organisation were called MAJCOM (major air command controlled) units.

The MAJCOM units, under the USAF organization and lineage system, for example, the 4137th Strategic Wing, whose lineage (histories, awards, and battle honors) ended with their discontinuance and could never be revived. MAJCOM wings are fundamentally 'temporary', though many stayed in existence for a very long time, and then were revived with a different name but the same number (note the two entries for the 4133rd Wing below). But under the USAF lineage system they could not carry on the histories of the previous units.

Use By SAC

When the B-52 dispersal programme began in the fifties, the new Strategic Air Command units created to support this program were MAJCOM wings and given four-digit designations. Headquarters SAC was well aware of the historical significance of records and accomplishments of the strategic wings and the need to perpetuate this lineage as well as the lineage of many illustrious units that were no longer active.

In order to retain the lineage of the combat units and to perpetuate the lineage of many currently inactive units with illustrious World War II records, Headquarters SAC received authority from Headquarters USAF to discontinue its strategic wings that were equipped with combat aircraft and to activated AFCON units, most of which were inactive at the time.

The reorganization process, which took place from January to September 1963, was applied to 22 B-52 strategic wings, three air-refueling wings, and the 4321st Strategic Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. "These units were discontinued and two and three-digit AFCON units were activated. In most cases, the bombardment squadron that had been assigned to the strategic wings were inactivated and bombardment squadrons that had previously been assigned to the newly-activated wings were activated. While these actions were almost tantamount to redesignation, they were not official redesignation. Therefore, the records, awards and achievements of the strategic wing could not be inherited by the bomb wings." [Office of the Historian, Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt AFB, NE. The Development of the Strategic Air Command 1946-1986, Pages 117-118.]

1990-92: End of the MAJCOM system

During the Gulf War of 1990-91 MAJCOM wings, such as the 7440th Composite Wing (Prov) at Incirlik AB, Turkey, served alongside Provisional Wings such as the 801st Bomb Wing (Provisional) at Morón Air Base, Spain, and other AFCON wings.

The system was in existence up until 30 April 1991, when all such units became HQ Air Force controlled or AFCON. A number of MAJCOM wings were converted to AFCON status while retaining their four digit designation:

"At the same time, the Air Force withdrew the authorization for major commands to create MAJCON organizations. Those four digit organizations active on 30 April 1991, changed to organizations under the direct control of Headquarters USAF for organizational actions, eliminating all MAJCON organizations. Among the former MAJCON organizations were about twenty active four-digit wings. Within a few years, however all those wings were inactivated, consolidated with, or replaced by lower numbered wings." [ [http://www.maxwell.af.mil/au/afhra/rso/guide_usaf_lineage_honors.html A Guide to USAF Lineage and Honors] , Organization History Branch, Air Force Historical Research Agency, accessed June 2008]

An example is the 4404th Wing in Saudi Arabia, which was only replaced by a three-digit AFCON wing, the 363d Air Expeditionary Wing, only in 1996 or later.

List of MAJCOM Wings

References and See Also

*The Four Digit Wings, article in a British aviation periodical, probably [http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/mags/uk/ukmag04.htm Aviation News] , 1990-93 period (exact date not known)
*Strategic Wings
*http://www.strategic-air-command.com/wings/4-digit-units.htm
*http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/4d-units.htm
* [http://www.usafpatches.com/photo/index.php Patches of various 4-digit units - research lead]