56th Special Operations Wing

56th Fighter Wing
F-16 Fighting Falcon with the wing's first F-35 Lightning II
Active	1947-1952; 1961-1964; 1967-present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Fighter Training
Part of	Air Education and Training Command
Garrison/HQ	Luke Air Force Base
Nickname(s)	Thunderbolts
Motto(s)	Cave Tonitrum Latin Beware of the Thunderbolt
Decorations	Presidential Unit Citation Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Combat "V" Device Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross w/ Palm
Commanders
Current commander	Brigadier General Brook J. Leonard
Notable commanders	Robin Rand Philip Breedlove Carrol Chandler Joseph Ralston
Insignia
56th Fighter Wing emblem (approved 19 April 1967)
Tail code at MacDill AFB	MC

The 56th Fighter Wing is a fighter wing in the United States Air Force. It is the Air Force’s only active-duty F-16 training wing. The 56th graduates more than 400 General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots and 300 air control professionals annually. The wing is also responsible for three additional squadrons under the 54th Fighter Group located at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, where F-16 training is moving as the wing transitions to become the sole pilot training center for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

Additionally, the 56th Fighter Wing oversees the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field and the Barry M. Goldwater Range, a military training range spanning more than 1.7 million acres of Sonoran Desert.

The 56th Fighter Wing was activated 15 August 1947 at Selfridge Field, Michigan as part of the United States Air Force's experimental wing base reorganization, in which combat groups and all supporting units on a base were assigned to a single wing. The 56th Fighter Group, flying Lockheed P-80 Shooting Stars, became its operational component. The wing base organization was made permanent in 1948.

In July and August 1948, the wing pioneered the first west-to-east jet fighter transatlantic crossing along the northern air route from the United States to Europe, flying 16 of its F-80's from Selfridge to Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base, Germany, by way of Maine Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and Scotland.

The wing's mission included the air defense of a large portion of the United States. As this mission became more important, the 56th was transferred from Strategic Air Command (SAC) to Continental Air Command in December 1948, and then to the newly reformed Air Defense Command (ADC) on 1 December 1950. This mission was emphasized when the unit was redesignated 56th Fighter-Interceptor Wing in January 1950. It converted to the North American F-86 Sabre later that year. In a major ADC reorganization, to respond to the command's difficulties under the existing wing base organizational structure in deploying fighter squadrons to best advantage, the 56th was inactivated along with its 56th Fighter-Interceptor Group on 6 February 1952. Its operational squadrons were transferred to the recently organized 4708th Defense Wing.