The 499th Air Refueling Wing is an inactive United States Air Force (USAF) unit that was last active at Westover AFB, Massachusetts in June 1966.
The wing was first activated as the 499th Bombardment Group of the United States Army Air Forces, which flew combat in the Pacific Theater of Operations as part of Twentieth Air Force during World War II. The 499th BG engaged in very heavy Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombardment operations against Japan for which it earned two Distinguished Unit Citations. Its aircraft were identified by a "V" and a square painted on the tail.
The 499th Air Refueling Wing was an air refueling and airborne command and control unit active from 1963 to 1966. In 1984 USAF consolidated the group and wing into a single unit sharing a common history.
History
World War II
The 499th Bombardment Group was established in late 1943 at Davis–Monthan Field, Arizona as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombardment group. The unit's original operational squadrons were the 877th, 878th, 879th, and 880th Bombardment Squadrons. It was also assigned four bombardment maintenance squadrons (one paired with each of its operational squadrons) and a photographic laboratory,
The group moved to Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas in December 1943 to begin training. Due to a shortage of B-29 Superfortresses, the group was equipped with Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses already at Smoky Hill that had been previously used for training heavy bomber replacements. In the spring of 1944, the 499th finally received newly manufactured B-29s. In May the United States Army Air Forces reorganized its very heavy bombardment units. The 880th Bombardment Squadron and the bombardment maintenance squadrons were inactivated and their personnel absorbed into the remaining three squadrons.
The 499th deployed in September 1944, and became part of the XXI Bomber Command in the Northern Mariana Islands at Isely Field, Saipan, in the Central Pacific Area. Upon arrival the group's personnel were engaged in Quonset hut construction. By mid-October most personnel were able to move into the huts from the initial tents which they were assigned on arrival. The group began operations with attacks in the Truk Islands and on Iwo Jima. It took part in the first attack on Japan by AAF planes based in the Marianas. The group flew numerous missions in daylight, operating from high altitude to bomb strategic targets in Japan.
The 499th received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for striking the Mitsubishi aircraft engine plant at Nagoya on 23 January 1945. In March 1945 the group began to conduct night attacks, flying at low altitude to drop incendiaries on area targets in Japan. It completed a series of attacks against enemy airfields on Kyūshū to aid the Invasion of Okinawa in April 1945 and received another DUC for this action. The group released propaganda leaflets over the Japanese home islands, in July and August, continuing strategic bombing raids and incendiary attacks until the Japanese surrender in August 1945.
After V-J Day, the 499th dropped supplies to Allied prisoners. In November 1945 the unit returned to the United States; where it was assigned to Continental Air Forces's Fourth Air Force at March Field, California. However demobilization was in full swing and the group was inactivated on 17 January 1946.
Cold War
The origins of the 499th Air Refueling Wing date to 1 April 1955, when Strategic Air Command (SAC) organized the 4050th Air Refueling Wing at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts and assigned it to Eighth Air Force and later the 57th Air Division. The 4050th became the host organization when Westover transferred to SAC from Military Air Transport Service. In addition to the 384th Air Refueling Squadron, flying Boeing KC-97 Stratofreighters, the wing was assigned three maintenance squadrons and an air base group. Three weeks later the wing added a second KC-97 squadron, the 26th Air Refueling Squadron, which moved to Westover from Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio. A little over a year later, the wing became a tenant of the 99th Bombardment Wing and the personnel, equipment, and mission of its 4050th Air Base Group were transferred on 4 September 1956 to 57th Air Division's 814th Air Base Group (Later redesignated as the 814th Combat Support Group), and then finally transferred to the newly activated 99th Combat Support Group on 2 January 1968.