24th Special Operations Wing

The 24th Special Operations Wing was a tactical air/ground integration force of the United States Air Force that was activated on 12 June 2012 and which was deactivated on 16 May 2025. Its headquarters was at Hurlburt Field, Florida and it had component groups located in North Carolina, Georgia and Washington. It was the third special operations wing in Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).

The 24th Wing was previously assigned to Twelfth Air Force, stationed at Howard Air Force Base, Panama. It was inactivated on 1 November 1999. The inactivation of the 24th Wing and the closure of Howard Air Force Base ended an 82-year United States Air Force presence in Panama, which began with the formation of the 7th Aero Squadron on 29 March 1917.

The 24th Special Operations Wing was the only special tactics wing in the Air Force. Its primary mission was to conduct global air, space, and cyber-enabled special operations. The 24th was U.S. Special Operations Command's tactical air/ground integration force and the Air Force's special operations ground force that led global access, precision strike, personnel recovery and battlefield surgery operations.

24th Wing elements included:

Core capabilities encompassed airfield reconnaissance, assessment, and control; personnel recovery; joint terminal attack control; battlefield surgery; and environmental reconnaissance.

Prior to its inactivation, the wing was organized as follows:

The 24th Composite Wing was activated on 25 December 1942 to control all Army Air Forces units on Iceland and subsequently disestablished in June 1944.

From August 1946 until replaced by the Antilles Air Division in July 1948 the wing supervised large numbers of major and minor bases and Air Force units in the Caribbean area from Puerto Rico to British Guiana.