It also included aircraft and guardsmen from the West Virginia,[4] Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Delaware Air National Guards,[5] and reservists from Niagara Falls.

When the F-15s completed flight operations 17 April they had compiled 581 sorties, flown more than 4000 hours and maintained a mission capable rate greater than 83 percent.

[citation needed] The wing was inactivated in early May 2003 with the last members returning to the United States in September of that year.

The 485th engaged in very long range strategic bombing missions to enemy military, industrial and transportation targets in Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia, bombing marshalling yards, oil refineries, airfields, heavy industry, and other strategic objectives.

[6] The group received a Distinguished Unit Citation for combating intense fighter opposition and attacking an oil refinery at Vienna on 26 June 1944.

It struck bridges, harbors, and troop concentrations in August 1944 to aid Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France, It hit lines of communications and other targets during March and April 1945 to support the advance of British Eighth Army in northern Italy.

[6] It flew its 187th and last combat mission against Linz, Austria before preparing to return to the United States and re-equip.

[9] The 485th returned to the United States in May 1945 and was programmed for deployment to the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) as a Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bombardment group.

[citation needed] Many combat veterans of MTO demobilized upon arrival in the United States, and a small cadre of personnel reformed at Sioux Falls Army Airfield, South Dakota at the end of May.

[7] The group then moved on paper[11] to Smoky Hill Army Air Field, Kansas in September.

By 1956, three squadrons were in place and USAFE organized the 701st Tactical Missile Wing with a subordinate group at each of the main bases where Matadors were stationed.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency