22nd Air Force, US Air Force
22ND AIR FORCE, US AIR FORCE
History: Established as Domestic Wing, Air Corps Ferrying Command, and activated, on 18 February 1942. Redesignated as: Domestic Wing, Army Air Forces Ferry Command, on 9 March 1942; Domestic Wing, Army Air Forces Ferrying Command, on 31 March 1942; Ferrying Division, Air Transport Command, on 20 June 1942; Continental Division, Air Transport Command, on 1 March 1946. Discontinued on 31 October 1946. Consolidated (29 March 1979) with Continental Division, Military Air Transport Service, which was organized on 1 July 1948. Redesignated as: Western Transport Air Force on 1 July 1958; Twenty-Second Air Force on 8 January 1966. Inactivated on 1 July 1993. Activated in the Reserve on 1 July 1993. In Feb 1942, the Army Air Corps activated the Domestic Wing, later redesignated as the Ferrying Division, with the personnel of the Domestic Division, Army Air Corps Ferrying Command, established in December 1941. The Domestic Wing moved newly-produced aircraft, flown by AAF pilots, civilian pilots, and women pilots of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and the Women's Air Service Pilots, from points within the United States to ports of embarkation for shipment to Britain and other overseas Allies. Later, AAF pilots flew aircraft to destinations outside the United States. In mid-1942, the wing began flying cargo on transports it ferried to overseas locations, and in May 1943, the AAF assigned transports to the Ferrying Division to fly cargo over its scheduled overseas ferrying routes. In May 1944, the Ferrying Division began flying wounded US military personnel from overseas theaters of operations to the United States. After June 1945 until October 1946, the Ferrying Division returned Italian and German prisoners of war from US locations to Europe and thousands of US military personnel from overseas locations to the United States as part of postwar demobilization.
From July 1948 to June 1958, the newly designated Continental Division transported by air military personnel, including sick and wounded; materiel, equipment, and other cargo within the continental United States and to and from overseas bases and locations during peacetime and for Air Force and joint training exercises and contingency and humanitarian operations. Its units participated in Operations VITTLES (Berlin Airlift), 24 June 1948-2 May 1949 and the Korean War, June 1950 to May 1953. From July 1951 to March 1958, it also delivered all types of US military aircraft from US aircraft factories to worldwide locations.
From July 1958 through January 1966, the unit as the Western Transport Air Force supervised air transportation of military personnel, equipment, and cargo throughout the Pacific and Southeast, South and Southwest Asia from the Pacific coast of the United States to Saudi Arabia; aeromedical transportation within the continental United States; and various special missions, training, and exercises for the Department of Defense and major commands.
As Twenty-Second Air Force, the unit managed air transportation of military personnel, equipment, and cargo for the western half of the United States and throughout the Pacific and Southeast, South and Southwest Asia from the Pacific coast of the United States to Saudi Arabia; aeromedical transportation within the continental United States; the airlanding and airdropping of combat forces, equipment and materiel into a combat zone; and various special missions, training, exercises and humanitarian operations for the Department of Defense and major commands from January 1966 to July 1993. In December 1974, the Twenty-Second Air Force received the Tactical Air Command's Twelfth Air Force C-130 Hercules tactical airlift operations. In April 1975, it conducted Operation NEW LIFE which evacuated over 81,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees from South Vietnam and Cambodia days before those countries fell to communist forces and then Operation NEW ARRIVALS that moved the refugees from refugee centers in the Philippines to resettlement centers in the United States.
With its reassignment to the Air Force Reserve in July 1993, Twenty-Second Air Force managed Air Force Reserve airlift units which conducted the air transportation of military personnel, equipment, and cargo; the airlanding and airdropping combat forces, equipment and materiel into a combat zone; and various special missions, training, exercises and humanitarian operations for the Department of Defense and Air Force major commands. Between October 1994 and 1 April 1997, Twenty-Second Air Force also managed Air Force Reserve air refueling units which conducted aerial refueling of US military aircraft of all US military services during missions, training, exercises and humanitarian operations. Aircraft. Possessed no aircraft for ferrying operations during World War II. C-47/C-54/C-87 for scheduled cargo, personnel and aeromedical evacuation operations, 1943-1946.
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Origin/meaning
The Emblem was approved on 31 July 1959, modified on 16 August 1994.
Literature: Image from Wikimedia Commons. Information from https://www.afhra.af.mil/