The 306th Strategic Wing (306th SW) is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Strategic Air Command at RAF Mildenhall, England. It was inactivated on 1 February 1992.
The mission of the 306th SW was to coordinate all SAC air refueling and reconnaissance resources in the European Theater with the United States Air Forces in Europe. It assumed the mission of the 98th Strategic Wing when that unit was inactivated in 1976. The 306th SW was inactivated as part of the inactivation of SAC in 1992.
The units history begins in 1942 with its World War II predecessor unit, the 306th Bombardment Group. It was the first operational bombardment group in the VIII Bomber Command. It was stationed at RAF Thurleigh, England from 6 September 1942 until 25 December 1945, the longest tenure at one station for any one Eighth Air Force group. That highly-honored unit's lineage and history is held by the present-day 306th Flying Training Group, which is an active unit of the Nineteenth Air Force of Air Education and Training Command, stationed at the United States Air Force Academy.
During the Cold War, Strategic Air Command (SAC) established the 306th Bombardment Wing initially as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress medium bombardment wing at MacDill AFB, Florida in 1950. It later flew Boeing B-50, Boeing KC-97 and Boeing B-47 Stratojet aircraft. It moved top McCoy AFB, Flirda in 1963, where it was a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress and Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker heavy bombardment wing. The wing was inactivated in 1974 with the closure of McCoy.
In the 306th was activated once again as the 306th Strategic Wing at Ramstein AB, West Germany, assuming operational control for SAC air refueling and reconnaissance resources in the European Theater. In 1978 the 306th moved to RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom. For most of this period the 306 SW operated KC-135s and RC-135s. In 1992 it was inactivated and its mission transferred to the 100th Air Refueling Wing under United States Air Forces in Europe.
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