The United States Air Force's 40th Air Expeditionary Wing (40 AEW) was an Air expeditionary unit located at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, from 2002 to c. 2006. The 40 AEW's mission was to support combat forces in Afghanistan and other combat areas supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Operations began in October 2001. Its predecessor unit, the United States Army Air Forces 40th Bombardment Group (40th BG) was part of Twentieth Air Force during World War II. The unit served primarily in the Pacific Ocean theater and China Burma India Theater of World War II. The 40th Bomb Group's aircraft engaged in very heavy bombardment B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan. Its aircraft were identified by Triangle "S". The 40th Bombardment Group was one of the original ten USAAF bombardment groups assigned to Strategic Air Command on 21 March 1946, however it was inactivated due to budget constraints on 1 August 1946. The unit was reactivated and elevated to Wing status in 1952 as a SAC B-47 Stratojet organization until the phaseout of the aircraft in 1964. Reactivated as a USAFE wing to be the host unit at Aviano Air Base, Italy in 1966 to provide support to Tactical Air Command deployed rotational elements until 1992. Second World War The 40th Bombardment Group was constituted in Puerto Rico on 22 November 1940 and activated on 1 April 1941. The unit's operational squadrons (29th, 44th and 45th) were equipped with Douglas B-18 Bolos then early Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Martin B-26 Marauder aircraft to train, and patrol the Caribbean area, later to provide air defense of the Panama Canal after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. With the diminished need for defenses in the Caribbean, the 40th was reassigned back to the United States and redesignated the 40th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) in November 1943, being assigned to Pratt Army Airfield, Kansas and to the first B-29 Superfortress wing, the 58th Bombardment Wing. At Pratt, the group's squadrons (25th 44th, 45th, and 395th) began transition training on the new aircraft and its new mission. In March 1944, the group left the United States and deployed to a former B-24 Liberator airfield at Chakulia, India. In India, the group was assigned to the XX Bombardment Command of the new Twentieth Air Force. During the week of 15–22 April, no less than five 58th Bomb Wing B-29s crashed near Karachi all from overheated