341st Missile Wing Heritage Pamphlet 2018

341st Missile Wing History
On 27 December 1946, the Group was redesignated as the 341st Bombardment Group, Light,
and activated in the U.S. Air Force Reserve at Westover Field (later AFB), Massachusetts. The
Group conducted routine training activity there with AT-6 (Fighter) AT-11 (Bomber) advanced
training aircraft until it was inactivated on 27 June 1949.
Bomb Wing
The 341st achieved wing status when it was activated as the 341Bombardment Wing, Medium
in September 1955 at Abilene AFB (later Dyess AFB), Texas as a Strategic Air Command B-
47E Stratojet unit. The wing’s aircraft were designed to carry nuclear weapons and to penetrate
Soviet air defenses with their high operational ceiling and near-supersonic speed. The 341st flew
the B-47 in training and alert missions and participated in various SAC exercises and
deployments to bases in Guam, Morocco and England. During this time, the wing also controlled
a KC-97 Stratotanker squadron to provide air refueling for B-47 operations.
In 1958 after the loss of some aircraft in clandestine Cold War operations; it was believed that
Soviet air defenses had caught up to the ability of the B-47 to successfully penetrate Soviet
airspace. The Stratojet began to be phased out of the inventory and the 341 Bomb Wing began
sending its aircraft to storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona in 1961. The wing was
inactivated on 25 June of that year.