4th Fighter Wing
The 4th Fighter Wing (4 FW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command Ninth Air Force. It is stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, where it is also the host unit.
The 4 FW is home to the multi-role, all-weather F-15E Strike Eagle and provides worldwide deployable aircraft and personnel capable of executing combat missions in support of the Aerospace Expeditionary Force. The wing also provides logistical support to an Air Force Reserve KC-135R Stratotanker unit. The wing is also responsible for managing the storage and beddown of the Southwest Asia prepositioned vehicle package. The general manages and controls assets in excess of $4.8 billion and executes an annual operations and maintenance budget of $193 million.
The 4 FW is one of two Air Force units that can trace its history to another country. The wing's 4th Operations Group has its origins as the Royal Air Force Eagle Squadrons (Nos. 71, 121 and 133). When the United States entered World War II, these units, and the American pilots in them, were transferred to the United States Army Air Force VIII Fighter Command, forming the 4th Fighter Group on 12 September 1942. It was the first fighter group to use belly tanks, the first to penetrate Germany, the first to accompany bombers to Berlin, the first to accomplish the England-to-Russia shuttle and the first to down jet fighters. The group was credited with the destruction of 1,016 enemy aircraft, more than any other 8th Air Force unit, and produced 38 aces.
Initially formed as part of Strategic Air Command in 1947, during the Korean War, the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing was first unit to commit F-86 Sabre jets to that conflict. 4 FIW Sabre pilots destroyed 502 enemy aircraft (54 percent of the total), becoming the top fighter unit of the Korean War. Twenty-four pilots achieved ace status. In April 1972, operating from Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, as the first F-4E Phantom II wing to augment elements of Pacific Air Forces, aircrews of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing flew more than 8,000 combat missions, many into the very heart of North Vietnam.
As part of the Global War on Terrorism, in January 2002, elements of the 4th Fighter Wing deployed to Air Expeditionary units in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, flying combat missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.
The commander of the 4th Fighter Wing is Colonel Jeannie Leavitt. In 1993, Colonel Leavitt became the Air Force's first female fighter pilot. She saw combat, flying over Iraq and Afghanistan. She is the first woman to lead an Air Force combat fighter wing. The Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant Blake A. Malpass.
Famous quotes containing the words fighter and/or wing:
“A pleasant smell of frying sausages
Attacks the sense, along with an old, mostly invisible
Photograph of what seems to be girls lounging around
An old fighter bomber, circa 1942 vintage.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Love’s the only thing I’ve thought of or read about since I was knee-high. That’s what I always dreamed of, of meeting somebody and falling in love. And when that remarkable thing happened, I was going to recite poetry to her for hours about how her heart’s an angel’s wing and her hair the strings of a heavenly harp. Instead I got drunk and hollered at her and called her a harpy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)