385th Air Expeditionary Group

385th Air Expeditionary Group
Group airmen support retrograde airlift from Afghanistan
Active	1943–1945, 1963–1964; 2002-Undetermined
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Expeditionary Unit
Nickname(s)	Van's Valiants (World War II)
Motto(s)	Ales Victoria [sic] "Winged Victory"
Engagements	European Theater of World War II
Decorations	Distinguished Unit Citation
Insignia
385 Air Expeditionary Gp emblem
385th Bombardment Group emblem
World War II Tail Code	Square G

The 385th Air Expeditionary Group is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Mobility Command to activate or inactivate as needed. It was last known to be stationed at Incirlik AB, Turkey. It is currently a tenant unit of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

During World War II, it was active as the 385th Bombardment Group (Heavy), an Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress unit, stationed at RAF Great Ashfield, England. The group led the famous attack on the Focke-Wulf Assembly Plant at Marienburg in East Prussia on 9 October 1943.

During the Cold War, the 385th Strategic Aerospace Wing was a Strategic Air Command (SAC) wing assigned to the 818th Strategic Aerospace Division at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. It conducted strategic air refueling operations and maintained ICBM readiness to meet SAC commitments. The wing served as a deterrent force and also supported SAC's global air refueling mission until inactivated in 1964 as part of the phaseout of the SM-65 Atlas ICBM from the USAF inventory. It was inactivated on 15 December 1964.

The unit was first activated as the 385th Bombardment Group (BG) in late 1942 at Davis-Monthan Field in Arizona. Its initial squadrons were the 548th,549th,550th, and 551st Bombardment Squadrons.