100th Air Refueling Wing

History

The 100th Air Refueling Wing, nicknamed the Bloody Hundredth, is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Third Air Force, United States Air Forces in Europe – Air Forces Africa. It is stationed at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, United Kingdom. It is also the host wing at RAF Mildenhall.

The 100th is the only permanent U.S. air refueling wing in the European theater, operating the Boeing KC-135R/T Stratotanker.

During World War II, its predecessor unit, the 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was an Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress unit in England, stationed at RAF Thorpe Abbotts. Flying over 300 combat missions, the group earned two Distinguished Unit Citations (Regensburg, 17 August 1943; Berlin, 4/6/8 March 1944). The group suffered tremendous losses in combat, with 177 aircraft missing in action, flying its last mission on 20 April 1945.

One of the wing's honors is that it is the only modern USAF operational wing allowed to display on its assigned aircraft the tail code (Square-D) of its World War II predecessor.

Text from Wikipedia: 100th Air Refueling Wing, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Key dates

1. 1942
   On 1 June 1942, the Army Air Forces activated the 100th Bombardment Group (Heavy) and assigned it to III Bomber Command.
2. 1942
   350th Bombardment Squadron (later 350th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, 350th Air Refueling Squadron): 1 June 1942 – 15 December 1945; 16 July 1947 – 27 June 1949; 1 January 1956 – 1 July 1976 (detached 4 March-c. 4 April 1958); 28 January 1982 – 15 March 1983
3. 1947
   On 29 May 1947, Headquarters Army Air Forces reactivated the 100th at Miami Army Air Field.
4. 1965
   The 100th ARS retired its last tanker on 21 December 1965, when aircraft 53-0282 flew to the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
5. 1974
   Not until the Communist Chinese had actually exploded their sixteenth nuclear device on 17 June 1974, could Headquarters USAF announce that all negotiations were concluded.
6. 1983
   The 100th was inactivated on 15 March 1983 when its two KC-135 squadrons were reassigned to the host 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale, which became a composite wing under the one-base, one-wing concept.
7. 1984
   Consolidated with the 100th Bombardment Group on 31 January 1984 (remained inactive)
8. 1992
   Six months after its inactivation as an air division, and over 46 years after departing England at the end of World War II, the Air Force activated the 100th Air Refueling Wing, stationed at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, on 1 February 1992.
9. 1992
   Since its reactivation in 1992, the 100th has served as the lone air refueling wing of the United States Air Forces in Europe.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone with this unit

A unit history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Morning reports (include Army Air Forces units)
• Search Army and AAF morning reports, 1912–1946 (National Archives Catalog)
• Air Force organizational records and lineage (AFHRA)

More history

• Air Force Historical Research Agency
• Wikipedia: 100th Air Refueling Wing