388th Operations Group

388th Operations Group
Emblem of the 388th Operations Group
Active	1942–1945; 1953–1957; 1991–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force

The 388th Operations Group (388 OG) is the flying component of the 388th Fighter Wing, assigned to the Air Combat Command Twelfth Air Force. The group is stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

During World War II, its predecessor unit, the 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was an Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress unit in England, stationed at RAF Knettishall (Station 136). The group earned four Distinguished Unit Citations, flying over 300 combat missions (17 August 1943 – Regensburg; 26 June 1943 – Hanover; 12 May 1944 – Brux and 21 June 1944 on a shuttle mission to Russia). It also conducted Aphroditie radio-controlled B-24 Liberators as test guided bombs.

The 388th Operations Group is responsible for the readiness of a combat-capable fleet of F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-35A Lightning II

Operations squadrons of the group (Tail Code: HL) are:

Activated on 24 December 1942 at Gowen Field in Idaho. Nucleus at Gowen moved to Wendover Field, Utah in early February 1943. Final training was conducted at Sioux City AAF SD from early May 1943 to 1 June 1943. The aircraft then began their overseas movement, taking the northern route via Newfoundland and Greenland, and finally from Iceland to Prestwick, Scotland. The ground unit left Sioux City on 12 June 1943 for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and sailed on the Queen Elizabeth on 1 July 1943, arriving in Clyde on 7 July 1943. Assigned to the Eighth Air Force's 45th Combat Bombardment Wing. Its group tail code was a "Square-H".

The 388th BG began combat operations on 17 July 1943 by attacking an aircraft factory in Amsterdam. The unit functioned primarily as a strategic bombardment Organization until the war ended. Targets included industries, naval installations, oil storage plants, refineries, and communications centers in Germany, France, Poland, Belgium, Norway, Romania, and the Netherlands.

The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for withstanding heavy opposition to bomb a vital aircraft factory at Regensburg on 1 August 1943. The 388th received another DUC for three outstanding missions: an attack against a tire and rubber factory in Hanover on 26 July 1943; the bombardment of a synthetic oil refinery in Brux on 12 May 1944; and a strike against a synthetic oil refinery at Ruhland on 21 June 1944, during a shuttle raid from England to Russia.