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Reflex Wings

     Toward increasing its deterrent power, SAC maintained a number of its bombers on alert at locations closer to the Soviet Union than the mainland United States.  Stateside bomb wings would deploy aircraft and crews to the Reflex bases on a temporary duty basis.  When the author was as Plattsburgh AFB in the early 1960s, some of it's B-47 were always on Reflex duty in Spain.  The overseas reflex wing was not assigned any bombers on a permanent basis, but did have support aircraft.  
     The program was terminated after a B-52 loaded with four nuclear weapons crashed in Newfoundland.  Not all of the weapons were recovered.  

  3918th Strategic Wing
     Activated  1 Feb 1964 at RAF Upper Heyford, England.  Assigned to Strategic Air Command, 7th Air Division.  Inactivated 31 Mar 1965.
  3920th Strategic Wing
     Activated 1 Feb 1964, RAF Brize Norton, England.  Assigned to Strategic Air Command, 7th Air Division.
Inactivated 31 Mar 1965.
  3973rd Strategic Wing
     Activated 1 Feb 1964, at Moron AB, Spain.  Assigned to Sixteenth Air Force, 65th Air Division.
Reassigned to USAFE on 15 Apr 1966.
  3977th Support Wing
     Redesignated in 1957, Madrid, Spain.  Assigned to Sixteenth Air Force, 65th Air Division
Redesignated 1 Apr 1958 as 3977th Support Group.
4081st Strategic Wing
     Activated 1 Apr 1957, Harmon AFB, Newfoundland.  Assigned to Eighth Air Force.  Flew B-52s.
Assigned to the 45th Air Division on 1 Jan 1959  Inactivated  25 Jun 1966.

 

4082nd Strategic Wing
     Activated 1 Apr 1957, at Goose Bay AB, Newfoundland.  Assigned to Eighth Air Force.  Flew B-52s.  Assigned to 45th Air Division on 1 Jan 1959.  Inactivated 2 Oct 1966.

 

4083rd Strategic Wing
Activated 1 Apr 1957, at Thule AB, Greenland.  Assigned to Eighth Air Force.  Inactivated 1 Jul 1959.
4083rd Air Base Wing
Activated 1 Jul 1959, at Thule AB, Greenland, same date as the Strategic Wing was inactivated.
Assigned to Eight Air Force.  Inactivated  1 Jul 1960.

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  4157th Strategic Wing
     Activated on 1 Jul 1962, Eielson AFB, Alaska.  Assigned to Fifteenth Air Force.  Flew B-52s.  Assigned to the 18th Strategic Aerospace Division on 1 Jul 1965.  Inactivated 25 Mar 1967.   Resources absorbed by the 6th Bomb Wing.
  4158th Strategic Wing
     Activated 1 Nov 1963, at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.  Flew B-52s.  Assigned to the 18th Strategic Aerospace Division on 1 Jul 1965.  Inactivated 25 Jun 1966.
  7602nd Support Wing
    Activated 1 Jan 1957, Madrid, Spain.  Assigned to the Strategic Air Command, Sixteenth Air Force.  Flew KC-97 tankers  Redesignated in 1957 as the 3977th Support Wing.