The 7th Operations Group carries the lineage and history of its highly decorated World War II predecessor unit.

Active for over 60 years, the 7 BW was a component wing of Strategic Air Command's heavy bomber deterrent force throughout the Cold War.

The wing mission was to organize and train a force capable of immediate and sustained long range offensive warfare and operations in any part of the world.

[8][9] The 11th Bomb Group was assigned to Eighth Air Force, but attached to the 7th wing and was also equipped with B-36As for training.

[10] A five ship B-36 formation was flown on 15 January 1949, in an air review over Washington, D.C., commemorating the inauguration of the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman.

The aircraft, staging through Limestone AFB, Maine, would land at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, following a night radar bombing attack on Helgoland, West Germany.

[12] On 1 September 1952, what was then thought to be a tornado rolled across the Carswell flight line, with winds over 90 miles per hour recorded at the control tower.

"[12] None of the 82 bombers on the base escaped damage, and SAC declared the entire 19th Air Division at Carswell non-operational.

More heavily damaged aircraft were worked on by personnel from the San Antonio Air Materiel Area, where the depot for the B-36 was located.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the primary mission of the wing was training in global strategic bombardment and air refueling operations.

The modified B-52Fs were the only SAC bombers to deploy for Arc Light missions until 1966, when the B-52Fs were replaced by B-52Ds with the Big Belly modification than enabled them to carry a larger and more varied bomb load.

During the relief of Khe Sanh, unbroken waves of six aircraft, attacking every three hours, dropped bombs as close as 900 feet from friendly lines.

Also, the wing flew numerous atmospheric sampling missions during 1986 and 1987 in response to the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident.

Deployed air refueling personnel and equipment to provisional wings in Southwest Asia, August 1990 – February 1992.

The wing hosted the first Soviet START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) exhibition inspection team in September 1991.

As "host unit" for Carswell AFB, the 7th Bomb Wing began preparations for Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC)-directed base realignment of Carswell AFB in January 1992 and transfer of most of the installation to the U.S. Navy as Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth / Carswell Field to replace nearby Naval Air Station Dallas, which was also being closed due to BRAC.

The 7th Bomb Wing closed Carswell AFB on 30 September 1993, transferring the installation to the U.S. Navy as NAS JRB Fort Worth and to Air Force Reserve Command as Carswell Air Reserve Station and moved to Dyess AFB, Texas without personnel or equipment on 1 October 1993.

In 1997, the wing assumed responsibility for all B-1B initial qualification and instructor upgrade training for Air Combat Command.