the 82nd Airborne, killing twenty-three and injuring dozens more.
After the crash, composite wings took a lot of flak from critics, who charged that the wide variety of aircraft flying in the pattern had something to do with the accident. The charge was absurd, and the critics knew it: Nellis AFB, Nevada, is the largest and busiest air force base in the world. During exercises, Nellis often has over a dozen different aircraft types in the pattern at one time, and has not had a midair in
Despite the difficulties, composite wings appear to be working — working so well that a third such unit, the 347th Wing at Moody AFB, Georgia, has been formed to work with the XVIII Airborne Corps. Meanwhile, the 23rd Wing completed a highly successful deployment to Kuwait during the crisis that erupted in the fall of 1994, when a pair of Iraqi Republican Guard Divisions moved into the Basra area. Two of the 23rd's squadrons, one each of F- 16Cs and C-130s, rapidly deployed to the region as part of a much larger airpower deployment, with virtually every kind of USAF aircraft contributing (several hundred aircraft were involved). Though the 23rd did not fly combat sorties, this first real-world use of a composite wing has to be judged a success. The Iraqis backed off. This, in fact, is the ultimate goal of airpower: to be so formidable that a potential foe chooses not to fight.
THE GUNFIGHTERS: A UNIT HISTORY
The Air Force has always tended to form new units and disband existing ones with a reckless disregard for the niceties of military tradition. Thus, tracing the lineage of Air Force units can become a frustrating exercise, since the identifying unit numbers jump around so much. But following the story of the 366th is not at all frustrating; it is a unit with a long and proud service history.
As you walk into the wing headquarters building at 366 Gunfighter Boulevard (yes, that's really the address!), you are surrounded by evidence of that history. Photos, plaques, and citations cover the walls. The men who look out from those pictures seem almost to say to the new members of the wing, 'This is what you must live up to.'
The wing started life as the 366th Fighter Group at Richmond Army Air Base, Virginia. Flying P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, they moved to Thruxton, England, in January 1944, and began to fly missions over the continent in March of that year. During 1944, they flew cover for the Normandy invasion and subsequent breakout, right through the Battle of the Bulge in December. They flew their last mission on May 3rd, 1945, and became part of the postwar occupation force until their inactivation on August 20th, 1946.
The 366th Fighter Group was reactivated on January 1st, 1953, at Alexandria Air Force Base, Louisiana, as part of another unit, the 366th Fighter Bomber Wing, flying the P/F-51 Mustang and F-86 Sabrejet. After a series of European deployments, the Group converted in 1956 to the F-84F Thunder-streak, then in 1957 to the F-100 Super Sabre. At that time, the 366th Fighter Group was inactivated, with its flying squadrons being absorbed by the 366th Fighter Bomber Wing. The wing conducted an overseas deployment to Turkey and Italy during the Lebanon Crisis in 1958. Shortly afterwards, it was redesignated as the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW), but was inactivated again within a year. Cold War tensions in the early 1960s caused the 366th's reactivation, at Chaumont Airbase in France on April 30th, 1962. Flying F-84Fs again, they stayed at Chaumont for just fifteen months, then moved to Holloman AFB, New Mexico, in July 1963.
In February 1965, the 366th transitioned to the aircraft they are most closely identified with, the F-4C Phantom II. After spending a year getting accustomed to their new aircraft, they moved in March 1966 to Phan Rang Air Base in South Vietnam, and began their first combat operations since 1945. In October 1966, they moved to Danang Air Base and began to fly against targets in North Vietnam. On November 5th, two crews from the wing's 480th Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) scored their first kills against North Vietnamese MiGs. The kills came hard, though, because of reliability problems with U.S. air-to-air missiles. In April 1967, the crews of the 366th began to fly with new 20mm Gatling gun pods slung under their Phantoms' bellies, and began to shoot MiGs out of the sky with regularity. When the slaughter of the MiGs was over in May 1967 (they scored a total of eleven kills during the period), the automatic cannons had earned the 366th the nickname they would carry from then on: 'Gunfighters.' In December 1967, the 366th converted to the — D model of the Phantom, continuing to fly out of Danang. For their air-to-air successes the previous year, they received a Presidential Unit Citation in December 1968. With the withdrawal of other USAF units in 1969 and 1970, they became the only wing stationed in South Vietnam. The wing was highly active during the 1972 Easter Invasion of the South, which forced a move to the Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base in June of that year. During the period, they scored five more MiG kills over North Vietnam, earning another Presidential Unit Citation, awarded in 1974.
In October 1972, the wing abandoned its aircraft and equipment to other units at Takhli, and headed back to the United States to what has been their home ever since — Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. There they took over the F-111Fs and equipment of the inactivated 347th TFW, and in 1975, became the first Tactical Air Command (TAC) unit to win a Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombing competition, code-named High Noon. In August 1976, the wing deployed a squadron of F-111Fs to Korea to take part in a 'show of force,' following a border incident in which several U.S. soldiers were killed. Following the squadron's return in September of that year, the 366th sent its fleet of F-111Fs to the 48th TFW at RAF Lakenheath, England, in February 1977, under Operation Ready Switch. These were replaced by F-111As from the 474th TFW at Nellis AFB. Following the aircraft swap, the wing took over the training and replacement function for the F-111 community. They continued this mission throughout the 1980s, as well as taking on a new mission as the keeper of the Air Force's newest electronic warfare aircraft, the EF-111A Raven. Starting in 1981, the wing took delivery of these aircraft and trained to take them into combat. Eventually, the Ravens of the 366th went into action with the 390th Electronic Combat Squadron (ECS), providing jamming support for Operation Just Cause, the December 1989 invasion of Panama. But about this time, the planned post- Cold War drawdowns began to hit the 366th, with the 391st ECS being inactivated. Then, in August 1990, portions of the remaining Raven squadron, the 390th ECS, deployed to Taif Airbase in Saudi Arabia. There they served throughout Operation Desert Storm and the period just after. By March 1991, the bulk of the Squadron's aircraft and crews had returned to Mountain Home, where they awaited what seemed to be an inevitable inactivation under the planned Bush Administration force drawdown.
Then in April 1991, General McPeak's decision to remake the 366th into a composite wing was announced, and the people at Mountain Home began the process of turning an EW wing into the most powerful combat wing in the Air Force. In July 1991, Brigadier General William S. Hinton, Jr., took over the wing to supervise the transition. By the end of 1991, a small force of F-16s and F-15Es had arrived, and the squadrons began to form up. At the same time, the 366th continued to support the postwar no-fly zone over Iraq with the remaining EF-111As, deployed to Saudi Arabia for Operation Southern Watch.
As 1992 rolled along, the last of the wing's EF-111As were transferred to the 429th ECS of the 27th TFW at Cannon AFB, New Mexico; and in March 1992, the new composite wing squadrons were activated within the shells of the 366th's old squadrons. The 389th became the F-16 squadron, with the 390th and 391st being equipped with F-15Cs and F-15Es respectively. At the same time, new Operations and Logistics Groups were activated, joining the existing supporting units of the wing. In July, the 366th took control of the 34th Bombardment Squadron, equipped with B-52Gs and based at Castle AFB, California. While geographically separated from Mountain Home, the 34th is owned and operated by the 366th. The final squadron of the new organization came into being when the 22nd Air Refueling Squadron (ARS) brought their KC-135R tankers to Mountain Home in October of 1992. Now complete, the 366th began to train as a combined unit and to explore their new capabilities and equipment.
Over the next year, the wing continued to mature, though not without some changes and challenges. In July 1993, Brigadier General David J. McCloud arrived to take over from General Hinton, bringing with him the experience of two previous wing command tours. The highlight of the year was an overseas fall deployment to the Middle East as one of the core units of Operation Bright Star '94. Unfortunately, the 366th lost some ground at the end of 1993,
