416th Air Expeditionary Operations Group

416th Air Expeditionary Wing
A 416th Air Expeditionary Group airman positions a fire bottle while preparing a C-17 Globemaster III for parking
Active	1943–1945; 1962–1995; 2002–2005
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Air Expeditionary
Role	Combat Support
Engagements	European Theater of World War II Southwest Asia
Decorations	Distinguished Unit Citation Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Insignia
416th Air Expeditionary Wing emblem (approved 2 March 1964)
World War II Fuselage Identification Codes	5H (668th Bomb Sq) 2A (669th Bomb Sq) F6 (670th Bomb Sq) 5C (671st Bomb Sq)
ACC tail marking at Griffiss AFB)	GR

The 416th Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW) is a provisional unit assigned to the Air Combat Command of the United States Air Force to activate or inactivate as needed.

The wing began life in World War II as the 416th Bombardment Group (BG). The group was a Douglas A-20 Havoc light bomb group assigned to Ninth Air Force in Western Europe. It was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation for its actions in France when, in spite of intense resistance, the group bombed bridges, railways, rolling stock, and a radar station to disrupt the German retreat through the Falaise-Argentan gap. It converted to Douglas A-26 Invaders while engaged in combat and continued to support ground forces through the end of the war.

The group's heritage was continued by the 416th Bombardment Wing (BW), a Strategic Air Command B-52 Stratofortress wing that conducted strategic bombardment training and air refueling operations on a global scale based at Griffiss Air Force Base in New York. 416th BW crews and aircraft deployed to the Pacific during the Vietnam War era to support SAC operations during the conflict. In 1984, the wing and group were consolidated and became a single unit. In 1991, wing crews and aircraft participated in the war in Southwest Asia. The 416th was inactivated as part of the Post-Cold War drawdown of United States strategic forces in 1995 (BRAC 1993) and the closure of Griffiss AFB.

In 2002 the wing was converted to provisional status as the 416th Air Expeditionary Group It served as the host unit at Karshi-Khanabad Air Base (K2), in Qarshi, Uzbekistan, from 2002 to 2005, where it supported operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. It was redesignated as the 416th Air Expeditionary Wing in 2010, but the current status of this unit is not publicly known.