376th Air Expeditionary Wing
The 376th Air Expeditionary Wing (376 AEW) is a provisional United States Air Force Air Combat Command unit. It is currently stationed at the Transit Center at Manas International Airport, Kyrgyz Republic
A World War II predecessor unit, the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was the first B-24 Liberator group to be based on European Continent. It engaged in combat with the Ninth, Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces in the Egypt-Libya and Italian Campaigns. the 376th was awarded Distinguished Unit Citations: for operations over North Africa and Sicily, November 1942-17 August 1943; Ploesti, Romania, 1 August 1943 and Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, 16 June 1944. The B-24 "Lady Be Good" was from the 514th Bomb Squadron.
During the Vietnam War, the 376th Strategic Wing was a Strategic Air Command unit activated to perpetuate the lineage of inactive World War II bombardment units with illustrious records. It performed strategic bombing and air refueling missions over Southeast Asia with deployed elements from wings in the United States. From 1973 until the end of the Cold War it performed air refueling of Pacific Air Forces tactical and Military Airlift Command transport aircraft in the Theater as well as performing strategic reconnaissance operations. It was inactivated as part of the drawdown of USAF strategic forces in 1991.
Read more about 376th Air Expeditionary Wing: Mission, Units, History
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—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“As if her velvet helmet high
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With reasons fleece, and hoises saile
And humming flies in thankfull gaile”
—Edward Taylor (1645–1729)