| 476th Fighter Group | |
|---|---|
 476th Fighter Group – A-10 Thunderbolt II | |
| Active | 1943–1943; 1943–1944; 1957–1960; 2009–present |
| Country |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Air Force |
| Type | Group |
| Role | Fighter/Attack |
| Part of |  Air Force Reserve Command |
| Garrison/HQ | Moody Air Force Base, Georgia |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Kelly (Current as of April 2020) |
| Insignia | |
| 476th Fighter Group emblem (approved 18 May 2010)[1] |  |
| Tail Code | FT |
| Aircraft flown | |
| Attack | A-10 Thunderbolt II |
The476th Fighter Group (476 FG) is an Air Reserve Component (ARC) unit of theUnited States Air Force. It is part of theTenth Air Force (10 AF) ofAir Force Reserve Command (AFRC), stationed atMoody Air Force Base, Georgia. If mobilized to active duty, the group is gained by theAir Combat Command (ACC).
The group was active twice duringWorld War II for brief periods, the first time in China as part ofFourteenth Air Force and the second time in the United States as a training unit.
In the late 1950s the group was activated to openGlasgow Air Force Base, Montana, but the role of Glasgow shifted to the support ofStrategic Air Command (SAC)'s nuclear strike force and the group was inactivated in April 1960 and its assets transferred to SAC.
The group was most recently activated as a reserve associate unit in 2009.
The group is assigned to the442d Fighter Wing, atWhiteman AFB, Missouri. The 476th Fighter Group is an Air Force Reserve associate unit linked to the active duty23d Fighter Group (23 FG) at Moody. The 442 oversees the 476th's administrative and mission-support needs not provided by Moody AFB's host active duty wing, the23rd Wing (23 WG).
The group works under its own command structure but integrates its operations with the 23d Wing's 74th and 75th Fighter Squadrons and 23d Maintenance Group.[2] The group has approximately 115 airmen consisting of traditional reservists (TR), air reserve technicians (ART) and civilians. Eventually, the 476th will grow to about 230 traditional reservists and full-time ART personnel, including 20 in the 76th Fighter Squadron, 160 in the 476th Maintenance Squadron and 23 in the medical flight. The remaining airmen will serve on the group staff.
The 476 Fighter Group consists of the following units:
The476th Fighter Group was activated inChina on 19 May 1943 and assigned toFourteenth Air Force, but the group was never made operational and was disbanded two months later.[3]
The group was reconstituted and activated atRichmond Army Air Base, Virginia on 1 December 1943 as aFirst Air Force replacement training unit.[3] It was assigned the453d Fighter Squadron, which had been activated ten days earlier,[4] and the newly activated541st,[5]542d,[5] and543d Fighter Squadrons.[6] Replacement training units were oversized units which trainedaircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters.[7]
However, as the 476th was being organized at Richmond, theArmy Air Forces was finding found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were proving less well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, a more functional system was adopted in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit,[8] while the groups and squadrons acting as RTUs were disbanded or inactivated.[9] As a result, the 476th and its squadrons apparently never became operational at Richmond.[1] Instead, the 476th was moved toPocatello Army Air Field in late March 1944, where it was disbanded[3] and its personnel and equipment was used to form the 265th AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit Fighter).
The group was reconstituted again as the476th Fighter Group (Air Defense) and activated on 8 February 1957 as part ofAir Defense Command.[3] The group was involved in activation ofGlasgow AFB,Montana, but did not operate as a separate unit until 9 March 1959. On 2 July the13th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron moved to Glasgow fromSioux City Municipal Airport and began to work up withMcDonnell F-101 Voodoo interceptors. The group remained involved with trainingair defense crews until it was inactivated on 1 April 1960. On that dayStrategic Air Command assumed control of Glasgow and the personnel and equipment of the 476th Group and its support units were transferred to SAC to organize the 4141st Combat Support Group and the 476th units were inactivated.[10] The 13th FIS was reassigned directly to the 29th Air Division.[11]
SAC had organized the4141st Strategic Wing at Glasgow in the fall of 1958 as a tenant unit.[12] As it became apparent that the SAC mission would be the predominant one at Glasgow, the base was transferred to SAC and the ADC units there became tenants.
The group stood up as an AFRC associate unit equipped withA-10 Thunderbolt IIs and linked to the23d Fighter Group in July 2009.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
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