904 Expeditionary Air Wing is a wing of the Royal Air Force. It is currently stationed at Kandahar International Airport in Afghanistan controlling RAF operations at the air base there. It was activated on 1 April 2006 as part of a modernisation package to make the RAF more deployable on an expeditionary basis. It currently may report to No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group.
In World War II, the wing existed for a brief period as 904 Tactical Wing. It was first formed on 1 October 1944 as a tactical wing and its four squadrons were equipped with P-47 Thunderbolts and operated in tactical support of the Fourteenth Army in the liberation of Burma. In early 1945 the wing was withdrawn from Burma to prepare for supporting the invasion of Malaya scheduled for later in the year. However the end of the war intervened and the wing was re-roled. Deployed to Java in the Netherlands East Indies in the aftermath of the war two of its Thunderbolt squadrons were replaced by a C-47 Dakota squadron and aircraft of the wing took part in the repatriation of Allied prisoners of the war and internees. Following completion of that task the wing was disbanded on 30 November 1946.
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or wing:
“Speak the speech ... trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it ... I had as lief the town crier had spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and as I may say the whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Here’s a wing [laughs]. What do you like, the leg or the wing, Henry, or do you still go for the old hearts and lungs?”
—Nicholas Pileggi, U.S. screenwriter, and Martin Scorsese. Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci)