831st Air Division

831st Air Division
Wild Weasel F-4 Phantom at George AFB in 1987
Active	1957–1971; 1980–1991
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Command of tactical fighter forces
Decorations	Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Commanders
Notable commanders	Lt Gen Bradley C. Hosmer Lt Gen Richard C. Bethurem Maj Gen Robert F. Worley Maj Gen William E. Bryan Jr.
Insignia
831st Air Division emblem[a][1]

The 831st Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Tactical Air Command, assigned to Twelfth Air Force at George Air Force Base, California, where it was inactivated on 31 March 1991.

The division was first activated in October 1957 to command the two North American F-100 Super Sabre wings stationed at George and to provide support for them through its 831st Air Base Group. In 1958, one of its wings converted to the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, While its second wing continued to fly the "Hun" until moving in 1962, when it was replaced by a Republic F-105 Thunderchief wing.

During and after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the division deployed F-104s to Florida to augment the air defense forces there. As United States forces in Southeast Asia grew in size the division's F-105s deployed to support combat operations, with its entire F-105 wing moving in 1964. That year, a wing of McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs was organized under the division, although a year later the F-4 wing moved to Thailand, leaving two of its squadrons behind.

After 1966, when the division added the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, the primary mission of the division's wings was training replacement fighter and reconnaissance aircrews, primarily for Southeast Asia operations. During the Pueblo Crisis of 1968, the division gained control of a federalized Air National Guard reconnaissance wing for eighteen months. The division inactivated in 1971 and its two wings were transferred directly to Twelfth Air Force.

The division was activated again at George in 1980, replacing Tactical Training, George, which had been the headquarters for George's training operations. A few months after the division's activation, F-4 training operations were split, with one wing using F-4Es to train United States and foreign fighter aircrews and the other flying F-4Gs to train Wild Weasel crews. In early 1989, Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci announced that George would be closing. Training operations were consolidated into a single wing and the division was inactivated in 1991 as operations at George were reduced.

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