11th Air Force

The 11th Air Force was established in 1942 to administer a collection of air assets that had been rapidly assembled in the last months before the onset of World War II. This new air force stood against Japanese offense in the Aleutian Islands and Dutch Harbor, and was one of the principal units for the Aleutian Campaign of 1942 and 1943, in which enemy Japanese forces were counter-attacked and ultimately driven from their only US territorial holdings. This campaign was followed by attacks against the northernmost outlying islands of the Japanese Empire. In the Cold War, with the Air Force a separate service, the 11th became Alaskan Air Command, one of the main air defenses against probable Soviet air incursions and later long range radar warnings, providing “Top Cover for America.” This mission shifted moderately but remained essentially the same until the end of the Cold War. The end of the Cold War saw a major shift in the 11th’s mission. The AAC was returned to its former designation, the 11th Air Force, and the mission changed to global power projection.

381st Intelligence Squadron

3rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (3 AMXS)

3rd Maintenance Operations Squadron

3rd Operations Group

The 3rd Operations Group is one of the older air units in the Air Force, dating to 1919, when it was originally established as a surveillance group. It was reorganized and redesignated in 1921 as the 3rd Attack Group, under which the unit performed various peacetime functions, including border patrol and mail delivery. With the attack on Pearl Harbor, the 3rd was redesignated the 3rd Bombardment Group (Light) and flew light bomb attack missions through the Pacific theater, mainly along the southwest islands of the Pacific, from Australia to New Guinea to the Philippines, and eventually flying attacks against the Japanese mainland. Notable among the many missions of the 3rd BG were the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, which earned the unit a DUC, and the assault on Simpson Harbor, in which Major Raymond Wilkins earned a Medal of Honor, for flying his own plane into the area of greatest enemy fire and destroying two enemy vessels at the cost of his own life. The 3rd Bombardment Group formed the core of the 3rd Bombardment Wing, and was the tip of the spear in that units campaign in Korea, flying the earliest and last missions of the Korean War. The 3rd Bombardment Group was inactivated 1957-1991, when it reactivated to support the 3rd Wing’s global power projection mission.

3rd Operations Support Squadron

611th Air Intelligence Squadron

611th Air Operations Group (AOG)

611th Air Operations Squadron/AOS

611th Civil Engineer Squadron

611th Mission Support Group

611th Mission Support Squadron

673rd Aerospace Medicine Squadron

673rd Air Base Wing

The 673rd Air Base Wing was established in 1948 as the Naknek AIr Force Base Detachment, with the mission of supporting and supplying Naknek AFB, now the King Salmon Airport in King Salmon AK. The 673rd performed this mission in several incarnations, (as the 5073rd Squadron or Group) being inactivated and reactivated a few times but remaining an Alaskan unit in all activations. In 2010 the 673rd reactivated again to host and manage Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

673rd Civil Engineer Squadron

673rd Communications Squadron

673rd Contracting Squadron

673rd Contracting Squadron

673rd Dental Squadron

673rd Force Support Squadron

673rd Logistics Readiness Squadron

673rd Medical Group

673rd Medical Operations Squadron

673rd Medical Support Squadron

673rd Mission Support Group

673rd Security Forces Squadron

703 Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (703 AMXS)

732 Air Mobility Squadron

90th Fighter Squadron

962nd Airborne Air Control Squadron

Air Force - 3rd Wing

Established in 1948 in occupied Japan from the core 3rd Bombardment Group (see the 3rd Operations Group for their history), the 3rd Wing was one of the first Air Force units to see action in the Korean War, and continued in action to the last of that war. The then 3rd Bombardment Wing launched missions out of Iwakuni Air Base, on the west coast of Japan, scored the first aerial strikes and suffered the first American casualties of the Korean War. The 3rd BW continued through the several stages of the war, participating in several important operations. In one of the 3rd BW’s night missions in Korea one of the wing’s pilots, Captain John S. Walmsley, Jr, earned the Medal of Honor: Capt. Walmsley discovered and attacked an enemy supply train, damaging it and, having exhausted his munitions, flew at low altitude under heavy anti-aircraft fire to direct other aircraft to attack the target, succeeding in destroying the target at the expense of his own life. In the 1960s the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing (as then known) flew missions over Vietnam, flying ground support missions. The 3rd Wing flew for almost 60 months, and remained overseas, at a Philippine Islands base until the late 1980s, when the wing rapidly evacuated due to the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, and relocated to its current base. This relocation brought the current designation, 3rd Wing, and mission, global power projection.

Air Force Office Of Special Investigations Det 631

Air Force Office Of Special Investigations Det 631

The Air Force Band Of The Pacific

Training Detachment 14/372nd Training Squadron

Training Detachment 14/372nd Training Squadron