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108th Operations Group | |
|---|---|
 GroupKC-135 Stratotanker atIstres AB, France. | |
| Active | 1942–1946; 1946–1952; 1952–1974; 1993–present |
| Country |  United States |
| Allegiance |  New Jersey |
| Branch |  Air National Guard |
| Type | Group |
| Role | Air refueling |
| Part of | New Jersey Air National Guard |
| Garrison/HQ | Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey |
| Mottos | Per Caelum Victoriae (Latin for 'Through the Skies to Victory') (later Victory Through the Sky) |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Neel E. Kearby |
| Insignia | |
| 108th Operations Group emblem[1][a] |  |
| Tail stripe | Blue stripe "New Jersey" in yellow |
The108th Operations Group is a unit of the108th Wing of theNew Jersey Air National Guard, one of the many units stationed at theMcGuire AFB entity ofJoint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. If activated to federal service with theU.S. Air Force, the group is gained byAir Mobility Command.
ItsWorld War II predecessor, the348th Fighter Group, was the most successfulRepublic P-47 Thunderbolt group in theSouthwest Pacific Theater. Its commander,Neel E. Kearby was awarded theMedal of Honor for his actions in combat. Over a dozen of the group's pilots becameaces.
The 108th Group mission isair refueling. The wing enhances the Air Force's capability to accomplish its primary missions of Global Reach and Global Power. It also provides aerial refueling support to Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft as well as aircraft of allied nations. The wing is also capable of transporting litter and ambulatory patients using patient support pallets during aeromedical evacuations.
In addition to their primary air refueling mission, the group also supports an Intelligence Squadron and a Contingency Response Group
The 108th Operations Group consists of the following units:[2]
DuringWorld War II, the group operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater. It was the most successfulRepublic P-47 Thunderbolt unit in the Pacific War. The Group's commander, ColonelNeel Kearby ran up 20+ kills, including a 6-kills-in-1-mission, for which he was awarded theMedal of Honor. The Group scored 396 kills, over half of all the kills credited toFifth Air Force P-47s, and won twoUnited States Distinguished Unit Citations. The Group had 20 P-47 aces,[citation needed] includingBob Rowland, Lawrence O'Neill, Bill Banks, Bill Dunham, Walt Benz, Sam Blair, Robert Sutcliffe, andGeorge Davis, who would later be awarded the Medal of Honor flying F-86s during the Korean War.
On 24 May 1946, the group was redesignated the108th Fighter Group and allotted to the National Guard.
The 348th Fighter Group was activated atMitchel Field, New York, on 30 September 1942. It was equipped with the P-47 Thunderbolt. The 348th was one of the first USAAF groups to be equipped with the P-47.
After an extended period of training in the northeast United States, the personnel boarded theArmy transport ship Henry Gibbons and left the wharf atWeehawken, New Jersey on 15 May 1943. They groups personnel all thought they were heading for theEuropean theatre of war. However, they went through thePanama Canal instead and crossed the Pacific Ocean reachingBrisbane, Australia on 14 June 1943. They moved to Archer Field (Archerfield airfield) and waited for their aircraft to arrive.
The group's P-47D Thunderbolts began to arrive in Brisbane in the same month, and by the end of July after they had "run in" their engines on local training flights, the group began long-range missions to strike at Japanese targets inNew Guinea. In mid-June the 348th's three squadrons (340th,341st,342d) made the 1,200-mile flight from Brisbane toPort Moresby, New Guinea. The group operated from New Guinea andNoemfoor until November 1944, flying patrol and reconnaissance missions and escorted bombers to targets in New Guinea andNew Britain. The460th Fighter Squadron, stationed at Noemfoor, New Guinea, was also later attached to the 348th Fighter Group on 23 September 1944 .
The arrival of the 348th as the first P-47 group in theSouthwest Pacific area coincided with the opening of the Allied offensive in New Guinea. During the summer of 1943 the P-47 missions were chiefly as cover for bombers in the Lae-Salamaua area, and for transports carrying supplies to the new mountain locked airstrip at Tsili, only a few miles from the Japanese held Markham Valley. The group met its first air combat over Tsili on 16 August 1943, when two squadrons tangled with the fighter cover of an enemy bomber formation, and shot down three aircraft.
In September the 348th's planes provided cover for the paratroop landing at Nadzab in the Markham valley, and with the capture of Nadzab andLae the group entered into one of the most spectacular phases of its overseas career, in a series of fighter sweeps, generally by flights of four planes, over the Japanese stronghold ofWewak.
Lieutenant Colonel Neel Kearby, the Commanding Officer of the 348th Fighter Group shot down his first Japanese aircraft on 4 September 1943. He shot down a second aircraft on 15 September 1943. Colonel Kearby was awarded theMedal of Honor for action over New Guinea on 11 October 1943. After leading a flight of four fighters to reconnoiter the enemy base atWewak, Lt Col Kearby sighted a Japanese bomber formation escorted by more than 30 fighters. Despite the heavy odds and a low fuel supply, and although his mission had been accomplished, Kearby ordered an attack, personally destroying six of the enemy planes. For covering Allied landings and supporting ground forces on New Britain, 16–31 December 1943, the group was awarded aDistinguished Unit Citation.
In 1944 the group began to attack airfields, installations, and shipping in western New Guinea,Ceram, andHalmahera to aid in neutralizing those areas preparatory to the US invasion of thePhilippines. The group's pilots shot down 100 Japanese planes without the loss of a single pilot in aerial combat. FromFinschhafen the group flew its first fighter-bomber missions. In the early spring of 1944, while the group was at Saidor, fighter-bomber work began in earnest with attacks on the Japanese concentrations in theHansa Bay region just ahead of the advancing Australian troops
After 18 months in New Guinea the 348th boarded ship and plane for the Philippines. One squadron, the 460th, arrived several weeks before the other three, and proceeded to roll up an imposing score of enemy planes, shipping, and personnel destroyed, providing cover for convoys, flying patrols, escorted bombers, attacked enemy airfields, and supporting ground forces. During a three-week period it sank 50,000 tons of enemy shipping, which was slightly more than one-tenth of all the shipping sunk by the entireFifth Air Force during the year 1944. On 10 November the 460th squadron deployed forward toTacloban Airfield onLeyte, simultaneously escorting agroup of B-25 bombers attacking a convoy loaded with an estimated 10,000 enemy troops en route to reinforce the Japanese army on Leyte. The squadron's planes were the first of theArmy Air Force to fly over occupiedManila after theJapanese capture of the Philippines. A flight led by Colonel Dunham, made the first return flight on 17 November 1944.
The group's greatest day, in point of total of enemy planes destroyed, was 14 December 1944 when, in protection of the invasion fleet heading toMindoro, 5 Japanese planes were shot down, an estimated 75 were destroyed and 20 more damaged, on the airfields ofNegros Island only a few minutes flight from the Allied invasion force, which landed on Mindoro the following morning.
In aerial combat at the 348th's best day came on 24 December 1944 when its planes escortingB-24 Liberator heavy bombers in one of the first bomber strikes onClark Field, met an attempted interception by an estimated 100 Japanese fighters. 32 of the enemy aircraft were definitely destroyed, 7 probably destroyed, the remainder were driven off, and the bombers proceeded undamaged to carry out their mission.
Early in December 1944, while the group's planes were operating from Taoloban strip, the majority of group personnel were camped inland nearBurauen when the Japanese landed several hundred paratroops on an uncompleted airstrip less than a quarter of a mile from the group's camp, cutting the only road leading from the camp. For several days the camp was isolated between the paratroops on the East and the Japanese patrols on the West. Two men on guard post were surprised and killed by an enemy patrol, but the camp defense's prevented any breakthrough and the paratroops were finally wiped out by infantry and tanks.
When U.S. troops landed onLuzon the 348th, now in process of conversion from P-47's toNorth American P-51 Mustangs, began operation from San Marcelino airstrip a few days after the landing atSan Marcelino andSubic Bay. From this location the unit entered upon what many of its members consider its most outstanding work of the war, bombing and strafing in close support of ground troops. This work lacks the excitement and glamor of serial combat, or even of bombing and strafing of seen targets. Bombs and bullets are poured into areas where the enemy is reported to be, and day after day the mission reports stated "Results unobserved due to foliage". Only rarely were advancing ground troops able to tell what part of the damage found was done by a particular air strike.
At the time the 348th began ground support operations from San Marcelino, the infantry had taken Subic Bay andOlongapo and had started east with the objective of sealing offBataan so that the Japanese, retreating southward fromLingayen, could not use the Bataan Peninsula's defensive strength as did the U.S. forces in 1942. However, a few miles East of Olongapo stubborn Japanese resistance suddenly had been met in Zigzag Pass, where the road climbed in a series of hairpin turns overlooked by the enemy's positions. Our ground forces had suffered some casualties, had dug in, and in four days had been unable to make any appreciable gain.
On Leyte the 348th had done experimental bombing with a new and highly effectivefirebomb weapon, and it was proposed that it be used to break the deadlock in Zigzag Pass. However the infantry division occupying the west end of the pass was uncertain about the use of the bomb in close support of their troops, for fear of inaccurate bombing. So a Japanese supply area, well back of their front line, was bombed as a demonstration of accuracy, and was left neatly blanked with flame. There was no further lack of confidence. American infantry proceeded to direct our pilots to bomb and strafe just ahead of their front line, and for seven days advanced steadily until their mission of scaling off theBataan Peninsula had been accomplished.
Occasionally the curtain of "unobserved results" would lift. One strike, directed by Filipino guerrillas who set off smoke pots to mark tan enemy bivouac area, was later found to have caused 700 Japanese casualties.
After another strike west ofFort Stotsenburg, ground troops were able to move in quickly and found 574 Japanese, all killed by the single air attack. Neigher of those missions involved more than 32 sorties and 30 missions a day. It would be impossible to estimate how many other thousands of enemy dead were covered with the phrase "results unobserved".
During the month of April 1945 the 348th net a record for tonnage of bombs dropped on the enemy, with a total of 2091.5 tons. Total ammunition expended was just under two million rounds. So far as is known, this bomb tonnage is the greatest every dropped in one month by any group, either fighter or bomber, and the accuracy of the bombing attested repeatedly by reports from ground observers. Most of the record tonnage was dropped in the Ipo Dam area northeast ofManila, and helped pave the way for the infantry's capture of that vital control-point of Manila's water supply. From San Marcelino the 348th also flew missions overFrench Indochina,Hainan, China, andFormosa.
In May 1945 the group moved to Floridablanca airfield, west of Fort Stotsenburg, and from there continued attacks on Japanese ground troops, chiefly in the Cagayan Valley in northern Luzon. By the middle of June the enemy forces had disintegrated and scattered so that profitable targets were hard to find, So operations of the 348th were redirected to theRyukyus, and the group began operations fromIe Shima in mid-July.
Contrary to expectations the Japanese air forces did not choose to fight, and in the following month only 15 enemy planes were shot down without loss to the 348th in air combat. However, there was an abundance of ground and shipping targets inKyūshū and North China, and the group's P-51s took a constant toll of enemy transportation on water and land before the afternoon of 14 August when the planes of the 348th delivered the last bombs dropped on Japan before the order was given to "cease firing".
In the immediate postwar era, the group moved to Itami Airfield, Japan in October 1945 as part ofFar East Air Forces, performing occupation duty. The 348th Fighter Group was inactivated at Itami Airfield on 10 May 1946.
Colonel Kearby went on to score 22 aerial victories. Other aerial aces of the group were Lt. ColonelW.D. Dunham – 16, Lieutenant ColonelWilliam M. Banks – 9, Colonel R.R. Rowland – 8, MajorWalter G. Benz Jr. – 8, Lieutenant Colonel E.F. Roddy – 8, Major S.V. Blair – 7, CaptainG.A. Davis Jr. – 7, Captain M.E. Grant – 7, Major J.T. Moore – 7, Major E.S. Popek – 7, Major N.M. Brown – 6, Captain R.H. Fleischer – 6, Captain W.B. Foulis – 6, Captain R.C. Sutcliffe - 5, and First Lieutenant L.F. O'Neill - 5.
The 348th Fighter Group was redesignated as the108th Fighter Group and allotted to theNew Jersey National Guard on 24 May 1946. It was organized atNewark Municipal Airport and extended federal recognition later that year. Two of its World War squadrons, the 341st (now the 141st Fighter Squadron) and 342d (now the 142d Fighter Squadron) were assigned to it, along with the119th Fighter Squadron, which had been an observation squadron in the National Guard before the war.[1][3][4][5] The 119th was located with group headquarters atNewark Municipal Airport, while the 141st was atMercer Airport, near the state capital ofTrenton, New Jersey. The 142d was an element of theDelaware National Guard atNew Castle, Delaware.
Initially, the group reported to the52d Fighter Wing of theNew York National Guard and was supported by the 208th Air Service Group. In the fall of 1950, the Air National Guard reorganized its combat units under thewing base organization that had been used by the regular Air Force since 1947. In this reorganization, the 108th Fighter Wing was formed as the headquarters for the 108th Group and its support elements, organized into the 108th Air Base Group, 108th Maintenance and Supply Group and the 108th Medical Group.
In March 1951, the group was called to active duty and moved toTurner Air Force Base, Georgia, where it became part ofStrategic Air Command. Only the 141st Fighter Squadron remained with the group on mobilization.[1][f] To fill out the unit, the149th Fighter Squadron of theVirginia Air National Guard and the153d Fighter Squadron of theMississippi Air National Guard were assigned to the group. In May, the group and its squadrons becamefighter bomber units.
With return to state control, the group assumed theair defense mission. Despite its retention of thefighter bomber designation, it was gained byAir Defense Command (ADC) upon mobilization. ADC required the squadrons it gained to be designed to augment active duty squadrons capable of performing air defense missions for an indefinite period after mobilization independently of their parent wing.[6] It was not until 1955 that the group was redesignated the108th Fighter-Interceptor Group, when it received its firstNorth American F-86E Sabres. Once again, the group commanded the 119th and 141st Squadrons, but not the 142d, which became part of another group. In October 1958, its parent received a new mission as the 108th Tactical Fighter Wing and the group was briefly inactivated.
The 108th Wing had been mobilized during theBerlin Crisis of 1961. This mobilization demonstrated that although mobilizing a wing with dispersed flying units was not a problem when the entire wing was called to active service, mobilizing individual flying squadron and elements to support it proved difficult.[7] To resolve this, the Air Force determined to reorganize its National Guard wings by establishing groups with support elements for each of its squadrons to facilitate mobilization of elements of wings in various combinations when needed.[8] Shortly after the 108th Wing returned to state control in July, the group was again activated as this plan was implemented. The group remained active until December 1974, when the Air Force inactivated groups located on the same station as the wing to which they were assigned.
In 1973 the group was activated again as the108th Operations Group as the Air Force implemented the Objective Wing organization in the Air National Guard. It once again became the flying organization of the108th Wing, equipped withBoeing KC-135 Stratotankers.
The150th Special Operations Squadron was later added to the group, flyingBoeing C-32s. On 20 September 2023, the group flew its last mission with the KC-135R, as it transitioned to becoming anassociate squadron of the305th Air Mobility Wing, flyingBoeing KC-46 Pegasus tankers.[9]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
Previously: Philippine Department Air Force (1941); Far East Air Force (1941-1942) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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