825th Strategic Aerospace Division | |
---|---|
Active | 1955–1970 |
Country | United States |
Branch | United States Air Force |
Role | Command of strategic strike forces |
Decorations | Air Force Outstanding Unit Award |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Gen James E. Hill Lt Gen Gerald W. Johnson |
Insignia | |
825th Strategic Aerospace Division emblem[b][1] |
The 825th Strategic Aerospace Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Strategic Air Command (SAC), assigned to Second Air Force at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, where it was inactivated on 1 January 1970.
The division was first activated at Little Rock by SAC as the 825th Air Division in August 1955 as the host and command organization for two Boeing B-47 Stratojet units, the 70th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing and the 384th Bombardment Wing. From 1956 to 1959 the division's wings deployed to overseas bases periodically. After an organizational test, the 384th Wing began to maintain its alert aircraft at its home station and the 70th Wing became a training unit for reconnaissance crews flying the Stratojet. The division was awarded an Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for its participation in the test. A third B-47 wing at Chennault Air Force Base was briefly assigned to the division as well.
On two occasions, the division's operational units assumed a full alert posture. The first was in 1958, when the Lebanon and the Taiwan Strait crises occurred, and the second responded to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
As the B-47 force grew smaller in the early 1960s, the division's wings were inactivated, but the division added one of the Air Force's two LGM-25 Titan II wings and became the headquarters for SAC's two Convair B-58 Hustler wings. It continued this mission until January 1970 as the B-58 was retired and Little Rock was transferred to Tactical Air Command.
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