Shaw Air Force Base

An F-16CJ Fighting Falcon deployed from Shaw AFB taking off to enforce the northern "no fly" zone in Iraq.

Shaw Air Force Base is the home of the United States Air Force 20th Fighter Wing. It is also headquarters, Ninth Air Force, and United States Central Command Air Forces (USCENTAF). The mission of the 20th FW is to provide, project, and sustain combat-ready air forces, and is the Air Force's largest combat F-16 wing

Shaw AFB is located about 10 miles northwest of Sumter, South Carolina.

20th Fighter Wing

The 20th Fighter Wing is the host unit at Shaw, arriving on January 1, 1994 from RAF Upper Heyford England, replacing the deactivating 363d Fighter Wing. It's operational squadrons are:

• 55th Fighter Squadron
• 77th Fighter Squadron
• 79th Fighter Squadron

The 20th FW F-16CJ Fighting Falcons are tail coded "SW".

The 20th, as the host wing, also retains the responsibility for providing facilities, personnel, and material for the operation of Shaw. The wing staff includes: Inspector General, command post, judge advocate, safety, public affairs, historian, comptroller, manpower and organization, military equal opportunity office, and the chapel program.

The 20th Mission Support Group at Shaw supports more than 5,400 military and civilian employees and 11,000 family members. The 20th MSG is also responsible for thousands of acres of land, including the 24-acre outdoor recreation area located 37 miles northwest on Lake Wateree, and the approximately 12,000-acre Poinsett Electronic Combat Range located about 10 miles southwest of the base.

History

World War II

Construction began at Shaw Army Airfield on June 27, 1941. Major Burton M. Hovey became the first base commander on August 30, 1941. The base was named in honor of 1st Lt. Ervin David Shaw, one of the first Americans to fly combat missions in World War I. Shaw, a Sumter County native, died after three enemy aircraft attacked his Bristol while he was returning from a reconnaissance mission.

As one of the largest flying fields in the United States, Shaw Field’s first task was to train cadets to fly. The first group of cadets entered training December 15, 1941, and the last basic class graduated March 9, 1945. The basic flying school at Shaw Field had trained more than 8,600 service members to fly in AT-6s and AT-10s. When the mission changed, P-47 Thunderbolts arrived to replace the basic trainers, and pilots began coming to Shaw for fighter transition training until the end of the war.

For a brief time, Shaw Field also served as a prisoner-of-war camp. The first group of German POWs arrived on March 1, 1945. Eventually, 175 of them lived in an encampment near Shaw Field’s main entrance and worked on local farms. They departed in the early months of 1946.

20th Fighter-Bomber Group

Following World War II, the 20th Fighter-Bomber Group was activated at Shaw Field on 28 July 1947 with P-51 Mustang fighters. The unit later swapped its Mustangs for Shaw’s first jet aircraft, the P-84 Thunderjet. The name of the installation changed to Shaw Air Force Base on 13 January, 1948. By that time, the 20th Fighter Wing was the host organization.

363d Tactical Reconnaissance/Fighter Wing

On 1 April 1951, the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing was transferred to Shaw from Langley Air Force Base Virginia and doubled the activity at Shaw AFB. On 1 December 1951, however, the 20th Fighter-Bomber Wing transferred to Langley AFB and the 363rd became the parent wing at Shaw. The 363d would remain at Shaw, under various designations, for the next 43 years.

Headquarters Ninth Air Force arrived at Shaw from Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, September 1, 1954.

Along with the jet age came the opportunity for the pilots of the 363d to set a new world speed record. On November 27, 1957, four RF-101 Voodoos assigned to Shaw lifted off the runway from Ontario County Airport in California. The planes headed for New York and a place in history. The flight, known as Operation Sun Run, successfully broke the transcontinental flight record. The trip took three hours and seven minutes at a record speed of 781.74 mph.

In the autumn of 1962, the pilots of the 363d played a major part in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Utilizing their RF-101s for low-altitude photoreconnaissance missions, they helped identify and track activities at Cuban missile sites, airfields, and port facilities. In awarding the wing the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its achievements, President John F. Kennedy said, "You gentlemen have contributed as much to the security of the United States as any group of men in our history."

RF-4C Era (1966 - 1983)

The first McDonnell Douglas RF-4C aircraft arrived at Shaw AFB in 1966. Operataional RF-4C squadrons of the 363d TRW were:

• 4415th Combat Crew Training Squadron (JL, white fin cap) (1 Feb 1967 - 15 Oct 1969)
• 33d Tactical Reconnaissance Training Squadron (JL/JO, white fin cap) (15 Oct 1969 - 1 Oct 1982)

• 4416th Test and Evaluation Squadron (JM, yellow fin cap) (1 Jul 1966 - 15 Feb 1971)
• 16th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (JM/JO, yellow fin cap) (15 Feb 1971 - 3 Feb 1983)

• 62d Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (JO, red fin cap) (15 Oct 1971 - 1 July 1982)
• 18th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (JP/JO, blue fin cap) (30 Nov 1970 - 30 Sep 1979)

363d TRW tail codes standardized in 1972 to "JO".

With the arrival of the F-16 squadrons, the 33d and 16th TRS were deactivated. The 62d TRS was reassigned to Bergstom AFB Texas as the 62d Tactical Reconnaissance Training Squadron.

The 39th Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron flew EB-66C/D/E Electronic Warfare aircraft at Shaw from 10 July 1968 until 15 March 1974. Many of these aircraft came from USAFE bases in England and Germany where the EB-66s were being withdrawn. Most were deployed to Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base and Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base during the Vietnam War. These aircraft carried tail code "JN".

F-16 Era (1982 - 1994)

On October 1, 1981, the 363rd TRW was redesignated as the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing. The wing received its first F-16 on March 26, 1982. Operational F-16 squadrons of the 363d TFW were:

• 17th Tactical Fighter (Activated 1 July 1982, white tail stripe, "Owls"/"Hooters")
• 19th Tactical Fighter (Activated 1 April 1982, yellow tail stripe, "Gamecocks")
• 33d Tactical Fighter (Activated 8 March 1985, blue tail stripe, "Falcons")

The 363d TFW flew F-16A/B aircraft until 1985, then upgraded to the F-16C/D models. All aircraft carried the "SW" Tail Code.

On August 9, 1990, the 17th and 33rd TFS of 363rd TFW became the first F-16 squadrons to deploy to the United Arab Emirates in Operation Desert Shield. Operating from Al Dhafra Air Base as the 363rd Provisional Wing (along with the 10th TFS from the 50th TFW, Hahn Air Base, Germany), the wing flew combat missions to Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm between January 17 and February 28, 1991.

Following Desert Storm, the 19th and 33rd Tactical Fighter Squadrons deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch, a coalition effort to enforce the Iraqi "No Fly Zone" south of the 32nd parallel. The 33rd TFS (inactivated July 1993) made history when one of its pilots downed an Iraqi aircraft with an AIM-120 missile. The incident marked the first time an AIM-120 missile was fired in combat and was the first U.S. F-16 air-to-air kill.

With the closure of Myrtle Beach Air Force Base South Carolina, the 17th Fighter Squadron recieved 30 Republic A/OA-10 Thunderbolt IIs from the former 354th TFW in the fall of 1992.

Post Cold War

As a result of the end of the Cold War, the Air Force made several dramatic changes with the inactivation and redesignation of wings and their units. The 363rd FW and its squadrons - 17th, 19th, 21st, and 309th Fighter Squadrons, were inactivated on 1 January 1994. On the same day the wing and its units were redesignated as the 20th Fighter Wing and the 55th, 77th, 78th and 79th Fighter Squadrons.

The redesignation was a return home of sorts by the 20th Fighter Wing, which the 363d had replaced at Shaw in 1951. During most of the Cold War, the 20th was stationed at RAF Wethersfield and RAF Upper Heyford in the United Kingdom.

In July 1996, the 55th Fighter Squadron transferred it's OA/A-10A aircraft to Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina and stood down. In July 1997, the 55th stood up as an F-16 squadron.

The 78th Fighter Squadron was inactivated on 30 June 2003, as part of the Air Force’s FY 2003 force structure changes, leaving Shaw with three F-16CJ squadrons.

BRAC 2005

In its 2005 BRAC Recommendations, DoD recommended to relocate the Third US Army Headquarters support office from Ft. Gillem and Fort McPherson, GA to Shaw AFB. This was a portion of a larger recommendation that would close Fort Gillem and Fort McPherson.

DoD also recommended to realign Moody AFB by relocating base-level ALQ-184 intermediate maintenance to Shaw, establishing a Centralized Intermediate Repair Facility (CIRF) at Shaw for ALQ-184 pods. DoD also recommended to realign Shaw AFB by relocating base-level TF-34 engine intermediate maintenance to Bradley ANGB, Mass.

See Also

• Tactical Air Command
• Air Combat Command
• Ninth Air Force

References

This article includes content from Shaw AFB Website's history page.

• Active Air Force Bases Within the United States of America on 17 September 1982 USAF Reference Series, Office of Air Force History, United States Air Force, Washington, D.C., 1989

External links

• Shaw AFB, SC Public Website
• Ninth Air Force web site