485th Air Expeditionary Wing

The 485th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Combat Command. As a provisional unit, the 485 AEW may be inactivated or activated at any time by Air Combat Command. The wing was last known to be active during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 at Tabuk Regional Airport, Saudi Arabia, in 2003.The wing was first activated as the 485th Bombardment Group, a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment group that served with Fifteenth Air Force during World War II. The group was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation for its action in a mission to Vienna, Austria in 1944. The 485th returned to the United States in May 1945, where it converted to Boeing B-29 Superfortresss, training with Second Air Force. When the war ended in August 1945, the group remained at its training base and became one of the original ten bombardment groups assigned to Strategic Air Command (SAC). The group was inactivated in 1946 and its aircraft, personnel and equipment were transferred to the 97th Bombardment Group.The second forerunner of the wing was the 585th Tactical Missile Group, which was stationed at Bitburg Air Base, Germany from 1956 to 1962. The 585th operated forward deployed TM-61 Matador cruise missiles from its home station. Later these missiles were replaced by TM-76 Mace (later MGM-13) missiles. It was inactivated in 1962 and its operational squadron transferred to the 38th Tactical Missile Wing.