Seymour Johnson Air Force Base
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Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base near Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base occupies over 3,300 acres (13 km²) in the southeast section of Goldsboro. Seymour Johnson Field was opened in April 1942 as Headquarters, Technical School, Army Air Forces Technical Training Command. In June 1943, a secondary mission was added which included preparation of officers and men for overseas duty. The unit was known as the Provisional Overseas Replacement Training Center. Seymour Johnson Field received a third mission in September 1943: to provide basic military training for cadets preparing to become technical officers in the Army Air Corps. The 75th Training Wing was established to conduct the program through its Aviation Cadet Pre-Training la k- School.
Interestingly, the namesake of the base, Seymour Johnson, was never part of the Air Force (or the Army, of which the Air Force was initially a branch). He was a local man who became a Navy test pilot and died in a plane crash in 1940, just before the US entered WWII. There is a historical plaque honoring him at the main gate entrance of the base.
Contents |
[edit] Military units
- 4th Fighter Wing
- 916th Air Refueling Wing
- 23d Fighter Group
[edit] History
[edit] World War II
The 326th Fighter Group arrived in October 1943 and in January 1944 began training replacement pilots for P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft. In April of that year, basic training of P-47 pilots became the primary mission of Seymour Johnson Field. At the end of WWII in Europe, Seymour Johnson was designated as a central assembly station for processing and training troops being reassigned in the continental United States and Pacific theater of operations. This function was discontinued in September 1945 and the field became an Army-Air Force Separation Center.
[edit] Cold War
Seymour Johnson Field was deactivated in May 1946. Community leaders were successful in their campaign to reopen the base in 1956. Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was reactivated as a Tactical Air Command base on April 1, 1956. Three months later, the 83d Fighter-Day Wing was assigned to the base as the primary unit.
In 1958, SAC began dispersing its B-52 bombers. Prior to that each bomb wing had 3 squadrons of 15 aircraft. Each became a strategic wing and was dispersed to another base. The 73d Bomb Squadron of the 72d Bombardment Wing was used to create the 4241st Strategic Wing. It was assigned to Seymour Johnson on Oct. 1, 1958.
The 68th Bombardment Wing moved without personnel or equipment to North Carolina on April 15, 1963, where it replaced the 4241st Strategic Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB. It was officially redesignated the 68th Bombardment Wing, Heavy. It conducted strategic bombardment training with B-52s and air refueling operations with KC-135s. Deployed at Loring AFB, Maine from July 28 to August of 1965 and from May 27, 1972 to July 15, 1972. During this time, all wing aircraft, most aircrew and maintenance personnel and about half of the wing's support people were loaned to other SAC units for combat operations in Vietnam. The 68 BMW was inactivated Sept 30, 1982.
[edit] 4th Fighter Wing
The 4th Fighter Wing, one of the Air Force's most distinguished fighter wings, moved to the base in 1957, replacing the 83d and has been the host unit since then. The 4th Operations Group can trace its origins to the RAF Eagle Squadrons of WWII. Those squadrons were made up of American pilots who flew for Britain prior to the US entering the war. After the US Eighth Air Force was formed after the US entry into the war, those squadrons were formed into the 4th Fighter Group. Many famous Aces were in this group. Members of the 4th Fighter Wing have served all over the world, including but not limited to Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and the First Gulf War. The 4th Fighter Wing is the host unit at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and accomplishes its training and operational missions with 92 F-15E Strike Eagles. Two of the wing's four fighter squadrons are operational units (335th Fighter Squadron and 336th Fighter Squadron), capable of deploying world-wide on short notice and immediately generating combat power. The other two squadrons (333d and 334th Fighter Squadrons) are responsible for training all F-15E aircrews for the US Air Force. The 23d Fighter Group hosts two A-10 Thunderbolt II squadrons (74th Fighter Squadron and 75th Fighter Squadron). While under the command of the 4th Fighter Wing, these units are stationed at Pope Air Force Base, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. this organization makes the 4th Fighter Wing unique, as only a few Wings in the Air Force have two Operations Goups.
