38th Bombardment Group

The 38th Bombardment Group is an inactive unit of the United States Air Force. It was most recently assigned as the operational (flying) component of the 38th Bombardment Wing, stationed at Laon-Couvron Air Base, France, where it was inactivated on 8 December 1957.

During World War II the 38th Bomb Group was a medium bombardment group operating in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) as a B-25 Mitchell unit assigned to Fifth Air Force. It was one of the first combat organizations of the United States Army Air Forces to be deployed to the Pacific Theater when elements took part in the June 1942, Battle of Midway using the Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber. Operating in separated echelons until February 1943, the group was re-organized in April 1943 into a standardized B-25 unit. At the conclusion of World War II, the group converted to the A-26 (later B-26) Invader medium bomber.

The 38th Bomb Group was awarded four Distinguished Unit Citations for its combat service in Papua (Buna and Gona, 23 July 1942 to 23 January 1943); New Britain (Cape Gloucester, 24–26 December 43); New Guinea (Jefman-Samate-Sorong, 16–17 June 1944); and Leyte (Ormoc Bay, 10 November 1944). It also received recognition from the government of the Philippines with an award of the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.

During the early years of the Cold War, the unit operated in France as a NATO tactical bombardment group flying Martin B-57B Canberras. The group formed the "Black Knights" aerial demonstration team that performed at several air shows in Western Europe, including the 1957 Paris Air Show. The Black Knights were the only tactical bomber show team in the world.

The 38th Bombardment Group (Medium) was constituted on 20 November 1940 by War Department General Order AG 320.2, and activated on 15 January 1941 at Langley Army Air Base, Virginia, by the 2nd Wing, GHQ Air Force. Its original cadre consisted of seven officers and 112 enlisted men transferred from the 22d Bombardment Group to administratively organize the group. Its original assigned flying squadrons were the 69th, 70th and 71st Bomb Squadrons, with the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron activated at the same time and attached.

In the first week of June 1941, the group transferred to Jackson Army Air Base, Mississippi to receive an influx of personnel just graduated from technical schools and to train a large levy of drafted enlisted men, mostly from Pennsylvania, fresh out of basic training. The first combat crews joined the group on 2 September, consisting of 30 newly commissioned pilots of Randolph Field Pilot Training Class 41-F, who began group training in seven B-18s and two PT-13 Kaydets. The next month the group began receiving new B-26 Marauders, and by 1 December 1941 each bomb squadron had 13 assigned. The first loss of an aircraft was 69th BS B-26 40-1472 in a landing accident at Jackson AAB, with all six crewmen killed, on 21 December 1941.

The German U-boat threat to Allied shipping earmarked the group for assignment to anti-submarine warfare patrols from a base in South America. Orders to transfer the group to Savannah AAB, Georgia, as the first step in the process, were rescinded when the United States was drawn into the war on 7 December 1941. Instead the group remained at Jackson until 18 January when its ground echelon entrained for movement to a port of embarkation at San Francisco, California, where it was quartered in the Cow Palace.

On 29 January the ground echelon boarded the Army transport USAT Tasker H. Bliss, formerly the Dollar Liner SS President Cleveland. The Bliss left in convoy from San Francisco on the 31st and arrived at Brisbane, Australia on 25 February 1942. On that date the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron was assigned as the group's fourth squadron, and re-designated the 405th Bomb Squadron on 22 April 1942.