Fourth Air Force, headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, Calif., is one of three numbered air forces assigned to the Air Force Reserve Command, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
As the largest Numbered Air Force in the Air Force Reserve Command, Fourth Air Force directs the activities and training of more than 34,000 Airmen across 18 wings and one regional support group.
The uniformed and civilian staff of Fourth Air Force headquarters are dedicated to ensuring assigned units and personnel are properly organized, trained, equipped and ready to support national security requirements across a full spectrum of operations from war to contingency situations. The headquarters monitors and provides assistance to all subordinate units who provide strategic airlift, airdrop, aeromedical, air refueling, and associated expeditionary support activities. Fourth Air Force responsibilities encompass 300 units and more than, 33,000 personnel.
The headquarters staff consists of Air Force Reserve technicians, traditional reservists and civilian employees. They direct activities and supervise the equipping and training of more than 33,000 Air Force reservists in unit programs located across the continental United States and Hawaii. If called to active duty, most of these ready reserve units would be assigned to Air Mobility Command, Air Force Material Command, Air Education and Training Command and Pacific Air Forces.
Fourth Air Force Units
Air Mobility Wings:
349th Air Mobility Wing, Travis AFB, California
452nd Air Mobility Wing, March ARB, California
514th Air Mobility Wing, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey
Airlift Wings:
315th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina
433rd Airlift Wing, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas
439th Airlift Wing, Westover ARB, Massachusetts
445th Airlift Wing, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
446th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
512th Airlift Wing, Dover AFB, Delaware
911th Airlift Wing, Pittsburgh ARS, Pennsylvania
Air Refueling Wings:
434th Air Refueling Wing, Grissom ARB, Indiana
459th Air Refueling Wing, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland
507th Air Refueling Wing, Tinker AFB, Oklahoma
914th Air Refueling Wing, Niagara Falls ARS, New York
916th Air Refueling Wing, Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina
927th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill AFB, Florida
931st Air Refueling Wing, McConnell AFB, Kansas
940th Air Refueling Wing, Beale AFB, California
Regional Support Group
624th Regional Support Group, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii
In addition to nationwide flying units, Fourth Air Force commands numerous support units representing a broad spectrum of Air Force specialties such as aircraft maintenance, logistics, and aerial port. They oversee, regional medical headquarters that train to deploy with medical center personnel to establish contingency hospitals. Other units specialize in security forces, civil engineering, aeromedical evacuation, medical services and patient staging, communications, combat camera, airlift control, and basic military training.
Operations
During Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM (1990-1992), more than 8,000 personnel were mobilized, and hundreds of others voluntarily augmented active-duty forces in the United States, Europe and Persian Gulf. This number included more than 2,800 medical personnel assigned to Fourth Air Force units.
More than 1,000 personnel from Fourth Air Force units were called to active duty to support the crisis in Kosovo in the late 1990s. Hundreds more supported Operation ALLIED FORCE (1999) in volunteer status. Assigned units routinely support United Nations and Department of State missions.
Fourth Air Force personnel were on the first teams into Haiti for Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY (1994-1995) and among the first Vigilant Warrior deployments to Southwest Asia during the first Persian Gulf War. In Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM,
Approximately 4,000 Fourth Air Force personnel were mobilized after September 11, 2001, in the support of global contingency operations and more than 20 percent of these numbered air forces personnel have served or continue to serve in Operations ENDURING FREEDOM, IRAQI FREEDOM and NOBLE EAGLE.
Fourth Air Force units also provided aid and assistance for several natural disasters, including the catastrophic Midwest floods and California wildfires in 1993; the Northridge (Los Angeles) earthquake in 1994; the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995; Hurricane Katrina; and the Central Asia Tsunami in 2005.
In 2021 Fourth Air Force participated in Operation ALLIES REFUGE, one of the largest airlift operations in U.S. history, providing strategic airlift and personnel to the evacuation of over 82,000 Americans and allies ending the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Two Fourth Air Force units, the 315th Airlift Wing from Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, and the 445th Airlift Wing from Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, both volunteered to support Operation ALLIES REFUGE, each welcoming the birth of children onboard each aircraft during the flight. Additionally, the Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded to three C-17A Globemaster III aircrew members of Fourth Air Force unit 349th Air Mobility Wing for their exceptional efforts during the evacuation.
Fourth Air Force continues to answer our nation’s call through rapid mobility, global contingency operations, volunteerism and countless humanitarian missions around the world.
(Current as of July 2024)