Shaw Air Force Base
Shaw AFB is the headquarters of the
Ninth Air Force
and home of the
20th Fighter Wing
, whose mission is to provide, project, and sustain combat-ready air forces. The wing operates the
55th
,
77th
, and
79th Fighter Squadrons
. The 20th, as the host wing, also retains the responsibility for providing facilities, personnel, and material for the operation of Shaw. The wing staff includes:
Inspector General
, command post,
judge advocate
, safety, public affairs, historian, comptroller, manpower and organization, military equal opportunity office, and the chapel program.
History
Construction began at Shaw Field on June 27, 1941. Lt. Col Burton M. Covey Jr. became the first base commander on August 30, 1941. The base was named in honor of 2d Lt. Erwin David Shaw, one of the first Americans to fly combat missions in World War I. Shaw, a Sumter County native, died after three enemy aircraft attacked his Bristol while he was returning from a reconnaissance mission. He downed one of his attackers before he perished.
As one of the largest flying fields in the United States, Shaw Field’s first task was to train cadets to fly. The first group of cadets entered training December 15, 1941, and the last basic class graduated March 9, 1945. The basic flying school at Shaw Field had trained more than 8,600 service members to fly in AT-6s and AT-10s. When the mission changed, P-47 Thunderbolts arrived to replace the basic trainers, and pilots began coming to Shaw for fighter transition training until the end of the war.
For a brief time, Shaw Field also served as a prisoner-of-war camp. The first group of German POWs arrived on March 1, 1945. Eventually, 175 of them lived in an encampment near Shaw Field’s main entrance and worked on local farms. They departed in the early months of 1946.
Following World War II, the 20th Fighter-Bomber Group arrived at Shaw Field with its P-51 Mustang fighters. The unit later swapped its Mustangs for Shaw’s first jet aircraft, the P-84 Thunderjet. The name of the installation changed to Shaw Air Force Base on January 13, 1948. By that time, the 20th Fighter Wing was the host organization.
The 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing transferred from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, on April 1, 1951, and doubled the activity at Shaw AFB. By November, however, the 20th Fighter-Bomber Wing transferred to Langley AFB and the 363d became the parent wing at Shaw. Headquarters Ninth Air Force arrived at Shaw from Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, September 1, 1954.
Along with the jet age came the opportunity for the pilots of the 363d to set a new world speed record. On November 27, 1957, four RF-101 Voodoos assigned to Shaw lifted off the runway from Ontario County Airport in California. The planes headed for New York and a place in history. The flight, known as Operation Sun Run, successfully broke the transcontinental flight record. The trip took three hours and seven minutes at a record speed of 781.74 mph.
In the autumn of 1962, the pilots of the 363d played a major part in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Utilizing their RF-101s for low-altitude photoreconnaissance missions, they helped identify and track activities at Cuban missile sites, airfields, and port facilities. In awarding the wing the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its achievements, President John F. Kennedy said, "You gentlemen have contributed as much to the security of the United States as any group of men in our history."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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