471st Bombardment Group
471st Special Operations Wing 
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|---|---|
| Active | 1943-1944; 1951–1953 |
| Country |
 United States
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| Branch |
 United States Air Force
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| Role | Special Operations |
| Part of | Pacific Air Forces |
| Motto(s) | Latin: Libertas Per Veritatem (Liberty Through Truth) |
| Insignia | |
| Patch showing 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing emblem (approved 12 June 1952) |  |
The 471st Special Operations Wing is an inactive United States Air Force wing. The wing was formed through the consolidation of the 471st Bombardment Group and the 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing.
The 471st Bombardment Group was a World War II heavy bombardment replacement training unit, last assigned to the First Air Force at Westover Field, Massachusetts, where it was disbanded on 10 April 1944.
The 581st Air Resupply and Communications Wing was a United States Air Force special operations wing, last assigned to Thirteenth Air Force at Clark Air Base, Philippines.
The 471st Bombardment Group was activated at Alexandria Army Air Base, Louisiana in the spring of 1943 with the 805th, 806th, 807th, and 808th Bombardment Squadrons assigned. The group operated as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator replacement training unit. Replacement training units were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters. In January 1944, Second Air Force began to concentrate on Boeing B-29 Superfortress training. The 471st was reassigned to First Air Force and moved to Westover Field, Massachusetts. Training at Westover included long range overwater formation flights.
However, the Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving less well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, a more functional system was adopted in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. This resulted in the 471st, along with other units at Westover, being disbanded in the spring of 1944 and being replaced by the 112th AAF Base Unit (Bombardment (Heavy)), which assumed the group's mission, personnel, and equipment.
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