4th Composite Group

4th Composite Group
Officers of the 3d Pursuit Squadron in formation in front of a squadron Boeing P-26 Peashooter, Clark Field, Luzon, Philippines, 1937
Active	1919–1941
Country	United States
Branch	United States Army Air Corps
Type	Air Defense
Part of	Philippine Department
Garrison/HQ	Nichols Field
Motto(s)	Up and at 'Em
Insignia
4th Composite Group emblem

The 4th Composite Group is an inactive United States Army Air Corps unit. It was last was assigned to the United States Army Philippine Department at Nichols Field, Commonwealth of the Philippines. It was disbanded on 1 November 1941.

The Group was the primary command and control organization for all Army Air Corps units in the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1919 until the eve of World War II in November 1941.

The unit was formed from the World War I 2d, 3d and 28th Aero Squadrons in 1919 (its emblem represents the three squadrons with Maltese crosses). The 2d Aero Squadron, having served in the Philippines beginning in 1915, was transferred back from Rockwell Field, California in 1920 after training duties in the United States during the war. The 3d Aero Squadron, also a stateside training unit during the war, was transferred from Mitchel Field, New York in 1920. The 28th Aero Squadron, which had served in combat on the Western Front during the war, was transferred to the group in 1922.

The units were re-designated as the 2d Observation Squadron, 3d Pursuit Squadron, and the 28th Bombardment Squadron, which represented the missions of the components of the group. Its mission was tactical training for coastal defense. Exercises and maneuvers with Army ground forces and Naval forces were a regular and important part of its mission. Another mission of the 4th Composite Group during the 1920s was aerial mapping of the Philippines, the topography of many of the islands were largely unknown. The areal mapping mission was the primary mission of the 2d Observation Squadron.

In the Philippines, the group largely received a wide variety of second-line aircraft over the years from the United States; Air Corps overseas units in the Philippines as well as the Panama Canal Zone were notorious for being the last units to receive the hand-me-down aircraft during the austere years of Air Corps procurement during the 1920s and 1930s.