349th AMW’s history includes military, civilian heroics

The 349th Air Mobility Wing accumulated some truly unusual accomplishments before it arrived at Travis.

It holds a United States Postal Service citation for getting the mail through to Eureka in Humboldt County, during the “1,000-year flood” of December 1964.

With the possible exception of David Grant Medical Center, the 349th is the oldest continuously existing unit stationed at Travis Air Force Base.

For this, and for flying through blizzards to kick out bails of hay from C-119

Flying Boxcars to starving cattle in Montana that same winter, the wing became the first Air Force Reserve wing to win the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award.

During the early 1950s, the 349th was turned into a fighter-bomber wing, a change that lasted only five years.

The 349th was activated in November 1943 at Sedalia Army Air Field in Missouri as the 349th Troop Carrier Group – with five troop carrier squadrons under its command. One of those was the 312th Airlift Squadron, which is still part of the wing.

It arrived in Europe in March 1944, equipped with C- 46 Commandos. It spent the war flying combat cargo missions, flying in everything from vehicles to gas and ammunition while flying out wounded.

It participated in the Normandy Invasion in June 1944, Operation Market-Garden in September 1944, the Battle of the Bulge and the airborne assault across the Rhine River in March 1945.

When the war ended, the 349th flew British units to Norway and evacuated French POWs from Austria before being sent back to the U.S. to prepare for the invasion of Japan. Its last assignment before being inactivated was training Chinese aircrews to fly the C-46s at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Texas.

The wing was reactivated at Hamilton Air Force Base on

June 27, 1949, where it acquired the nickname of The Golden Gate Wing. Hamilton dates back to the 1920s, where it was first known as Marin County Air Field. It was named Hamilton Army Airfield in 1932.

The 349th did not go to Korea, but some of its members were shipped out to other wings to bring them up to strength.

When the Air Force Reserves were reorganized in May 1952, the 349th became a fighter-bomber wing, armed with the P-51 Mustang and the F- 80 Shooting Star, which were replaced with the F-8e4 T hunderstreak. That life only lasted until 1957, when it returned to being a troop carrier wing outfitted with the C-119 Boxcar.

The Cuban Missile Crisis saw the 349th called to active duty and it was tasked with flying men and supplies to Florida. Between 1962 a nd 1965, 349th aircraft carried weapons to Los Angeles during the Watts riots and carried Marines to the Dominican Republic during the civil war there in 1965.

It was recalled to active duty on Jan. 28, 1968, as part of the response to the Tet Offensive in Vietnam.

In 1969, the 349th was moved to Travis, where it is stationed now as an associate unit to the active-duty 60th Air Mobility Wing. The Air Force curtailed its activities at Hamilton Air Force Base in October 1973.