436th Operations Group

The 436th Operations Group is an active United States Air Force unit. It is the flying component of the Eighteenth Air Force 436th Airlift Wing, stationed at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

The unit's World War II predecessor unit, the 436th Troop Carrier Group was a C-47 Skytrain transport unit assigned to Ninth Air Force in Western Europe. The group earned the Distinguished Unit Citation for its first missions 6–7 June, the Normandy Invasion. On subsequent missions the 436th dropped troops and supplies and inserted gliders into Southern France and the Netherlands. In March 1945, the unit was a part of the Allied push across the Rhine and into Germany's heartland. Following the war, the 436th evacuated patients and prisoners of war until it was inactivated in November 1945.

The 436OG consists of two flying squadrons, the 3d and 9th Airlift Squadrons, and the 436th Operations Support Squadron. It trains on its 18 assigned Lockheed C-5 Galaxy aircraft, known as "the free world's largest airlifter," and two Boeing C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

The 436th trained for duty in Europe with the Ninth Air Force during 1943. It continued training in England from January–May 1944. The group began combat operations in June 1944 and participated in five major airborne operations by May 1945.

The 436th received a Distinguished Unit Citation for its Operation Neptune missions, which were flown during the Normandy invasion; dropping paratroops of 101st Airborne Division inland from the Utah beachhead early on 6 June; releasing 82nd Airborne Division gliders with reinforcement troops and supplies in the evening of D-Day; and carrying out re-supply drops and glider delivery the following day. The group's aircraft flew supplies into Normandy as soon as suitable landing strips were available, evacuating casualties to England on their return flights. They also picked up undamaged gliders on the coast.

In July 1944, the group deployed 49 aircraft and crews to Italy to take part in the invasion of southern France, Operation Dragoon, releasing gliders carrying the First Airborne Task Force paratroops in the assault area on 15 August. It flew several resupply missions to France and then dropped supplies to Allied forces in Italy.

The deployed element returned to England late in August, and in September the group carried out airborne operations over the Netherlands, dropping paratroops of 101st Airborne Division and releasing gliders with reinforcements of troops and equipment during Operation Market Garden.

At the end of December 1944, the group flew missions during Operation Repulse, the re-supply of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.