305th Air Mobility Wing [305th AMW]

The 305th Air Mobility Wing was activated as the 305th Bombardment Group on March 1, 1942. The squadron began combat operations under the command of Lt. Col. Curtis E. LeMay while flying the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress from its station at Royal Air Force, Grafton Underwood, England, on November 17, 1942. Racking up battle credits for the Air Offensive Europe, Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes-Alsace, Central Europe and the Rhineland, the 305th earned two Distinguished Unit Citations and saw two of its pilots decorated with the Medal of Honor. After completing a post war photomapping mission, the 305th was inactivated December 26, 1946 at Lechfeld, Germany.

The squadron then became part of the newly activated 305th Bombardment Wing on January 2, 1951. Operating out of MacDill AFB, FL, the group trained in the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, as part of the Strategic Air Command. Later that year the 305th received its first Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighter. Following this, the group began training heavily in its new dual mission of strategic bombardment and aerial refueling.

Then, in June 1952, the 305th Bombardment Group inactivated, and the wing took charge of its former flying squadrons. This lead to the conversion of all B-29s to the revolutionary all-jet Boeing B-47 Stratojet in June. The wing continued strategic bombardment and refueling operations from MacDill, while deploying once to England and twice to North Africa between 1953 and 1957. In the meantime, the 305th entered a speed record-setting era as two B-47s set speed records July 28,1953, flying from Goose Bay, Labrador to RAF Fairford, England, in 4:14 hours and from Limestone AFB, ME, to RAF Fairford in 4:45 hours.

As the spring of 1959 arrived, the 305th aircraft headed north to their new home at Bunker Hill Air Force Base (later Grissom), IN. A few months later, the wing began converting from the prop-driven KC-97 to the all-jet Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, extending the wing's global reach. Two years later, the Convair B-58 Hustler, the first supersonic bomber in Air Force history, began replacing the aging B-47s.

The wing's global responsibility, set at strategic bombardment and aerial refueling, increased again in 1966 with the addition of the Boeing EC-135 Post Attack Command and Control System mission and aircraft. However, in 1969, the 305th's long history as a primary bombardment unit ended with the phase-out of the B-58. That change was reflected January 1, 1970 when SAC redesignated the 305th an Air Refueling Wing, continuing the air refueling and PACCS support missions.

From the early 1970s until the close of flying operations in Southeast Asia in 1975, the 305th tankers supported air refueling operations under ARC Light, a bombing mission in the southeast. Later, the wing supported worldwide tanker task forces by deploying KC-135 aircraft to Europe, Alaska, Greenland, the Pacific and Southwest Asia.

The 305th returned to combat in 1983 as KC-135 tankers supported Operation Urgent Fury the invasion of Grenada on October 23, 1983. Following this, the wing provided refueling support under Operation Just Cause, the restoration of democracy to Panama in December 1989.

From August 1990 to June 1991, the wing deployed its tanker assets and personnel to Southwest Asia to provide refueling support under Operation Desert Shield, the defense of Saudi Arabia, and later to Operation Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait. Following the close of combat in the Middle East, the 305th supported food deliveries to Iraqi Kurds in Northern Iraq under Operation Provide Comfort from April to May 1991, before returning to Grissom AFB.

In 1991 the Base Realignment and Closure Commission selected Grissom for realignment to the Reserves. Consequently, the 305th was inactivated along with its dual mission of air refueling and PACCS. With inactivation scheduled for October 1994, the PACCS mission and EC-135 aircraft were eliminated in May 1992, as the aircraft and crews were reassigned.

In July 1993, the air refueling mission and the KC-135s of the 70th and 305th Air Refueling Squadrons were transferred, leaving the 305th with no flying mission. The 305th Air Refueling Wing moved to McGuire Air Force Base, NJ, on September 30, 1994, without personnel and equipment.

At McGuire, the 438th Airlift Wing and 305th Air Refueling Wing were redesignated the 305th Air Mobility Wing. Along with the 514th Air Mobility Wing (Associate) and the 108th Air Refueling Wing (NJANG), Team McGuire's mission expanded to include worldwide movement of personnel, equipment, and supplies and aerial refueling to complete the wing's global reach capability.

The wing met all of its worldwide commitments in 1997. Some major successes: From February 16-24, 300 McGuire personnel and six KC-10s deployed to Moron Air Base, Spain, as part of Air Expeditionary Force IV, and in November, the wing helped deploy 70-plus wing personnel to Southwest Asia as part of Phoenix Scorpion. From May 27-31, AMC conducted the limited Operational Readiness Inspection improvements detected in many areas. In early August 305th SFS team won AMC's annual defender Challenge Trophy.

The 305th AMW manages 3,921 acres of land and 11 separate facilities throughout the Delaware Valley. These off-site responsibilities include a former BOMARC missile site and Gibbsboro Air Force Station. The wing also manages 965 buildings comprising more than 6,230,536 square feet. The 305th Air Mobility Wing oversees an Operations and Maintenance budget of $122,366,000. The Transportation Working Capital Funds amounts to $97,273,900; the 305th Medical Group budget, $15,046,900; and the military family housing budget, $16,878,400.

The 305th Air Mobility Wing maintains air mobility assets in a constant state of readiness to provide airlift and air refueling support assigned by Headquarters, Air Mobility Command and initiated by the Department of Defense.

Mission responsibilities include the movement of troops, passengers, military equipment, cargo, mail, and aerial refueling around the globe and around the clock.

The 305th Air Mobility Wing extends America's global reach by generating, mobilizing and deploying C-141s and KC-10 aircraft to conduct strategic airlift, airdrop, and air refueling missions.

The KC-10 aircrews of the 305 AMW and 514 AMW fly a total of 8.181 sorties each average busy day, 360 days per year. Approximately 1.667 sorties depart the base and proceed to other locations on Air Force-directed missions. About 20 percent of these sorties depart before 7:00 a.m. and 30 percent return after 10:00 p.m. The remaining 6.514 sorties are flown as pilot proficiency or air refueling training sorties that either depart the base and return the same day or remain in the McGuire AFB radar and tower controlled patterns. Approximately 1.247 of the average busy day training sorties are air refueling sorties on which only an arrival to a full stop landing is accomplished, 50 percent of which return after 10:00 p.m. Approximately 4.99 of the air refueling training sorties accomplish about one hour of pilot proficiency training at McGuire AFB after return the base and before termination, 40 percent of which terminate after 10:00 p.m. During this hour, about three radar patterns and approaches and two tower-controlled patterns are flown. Each day, approximately 0.278 pilot proficiency sortie is flown at the base. During this three-hour sortie, about nine radar patterns and approaches and six tower-controlled patterns are flown.

The C-141 aircrews of the 305 AMW fly 3.189 sorties each average busy day, 360 days per year. Approximately 1.315 of these sorties depart McGuire AFB and proceed to other airfields on Air Force-directed missions. About 10 percent of these missions depart before 7:00 a.m. and return to the base after 10:00 p.m. The remaining 1.874 sorties are flown as training sorties. About 0.505 sortie departs McGuire AFB for airdrop training and returns to the base for either an instrument arrival (45 percent) or overhead pattern (55 percent) to a full stop landing. Airdrop sorties are accomplished between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. About 0.684 sortie per average busy day consists of air refueling trainers on which the aircrew departs McGuire AFB, conducts air refueling training, and returns to the base to a full stop landing. Occasionally pilot proficiency training is accomplished after return to the base. All air refueling training sorties depart after 7:00 a.m. and all but 10 percent are completed before 10:00 p.m. The remaining 0.685 average busy day sortie is devoted to pilot proficiency training. Approximately 10 percent of the proficiency sorties (0.068 per day) depart McGuire AFB and proceed to another airfield to accomplish practice takeoffs, landings, and approaches and then return to McGuire AFB for a full stop landing. The remaining 0.617 pilot proficiency training sortie is flown at McGuire AFB. Approximately 16 radar controlled instrument patterns and approaches and 8 tower-controlled patterns are accomplished on each 5-hour long sortie. All pilot proficiency sorties are accomplished between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.