7217th Air Division

7217th Air Division
Emblem of the 7217th Air Division (HQ TUSLOG)
Active	1959-1970
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Administrative support
Part of	United States Air Forces in Europe

The 7217th Air Division (7217th AD) was an air division of the United States Air Force. Its last assignment was with the United States Air Forces in Europe, being stationed at Ankara Air Station, Turkey. It was inactivated on 9 September 1970.

The division provided logistical support for all American armed forces, and military activities in Turkey, Greece, and Crete. Its area of responsibility extended from the Black Sea to Ethiopia and from Greece to Pakistan.

In April 1953, the Joint Chiefs of Staff assigned responsibility for the logistical support of all U.S. forces in Turkey to Headquarters, United States Air Forces in Europe. In turn, USAFE assigned this responsibility to the 7206th Air Base Squadron (ABS) at Hellenikon Air Base, Greece. On 1 April 1954, Detachment 1 of the 7206 ABS was activated in Ankara with a staff of one officer and one airman. This extremely modest force was abso rbed by an advanced echelon of the Seventeenth Air Force deployed from Rabat, Morocco in December 1954. On 15 May 1955, Headquarters Seventeenth Air Force activated Headquarters 7217th Support Group in Ankara. This unit was referred to as Headquarters The United States Logistics Group (HQ TUSLOG). Later that summer, on 25 July, Detachment 1 of the 7206 ABS was discontinued and on 1 August, the 7217 ABS was activated with a staff of five officers, 39 airmen, and four Turkish nationals. The 7217 ABS was designated as TUSLOG Detachment 1 and at approximately the same time, in accordance with the wishes of the Turkish Government, all other US military units and civilian components in Turkey were also given designations as TUSLOG detachments.

The 7217th Air Division was established as a result of the 1958 Lebanon Crisis during which the US sent aircraft and troops to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey in support of the Marines dispatched to Lebanon. At the same time the United States Ambassador to Turkey (the US Embassy) and its agencies were demanding more and more services. As a result, on 7 August 1959, USAFE reversed its position and elevated HQ TUSLOG to be the 7217th Air Division. The rank of the commander of HQ TUSLOG was then raised from colonel to brigadier general.