The 484th Air Expeditionary Wing is a provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to Air Combat Command. It may be activated or inactivated at any time. It was activated and attached to United States Air Forces Central for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (Operation Iraqi Freedom). It was headquartered at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. The wing was originally activated in 1943 as the 484th Bombardment Group as a World War II United States Army Air Forces combat unit. The group served primarily in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. During operations from Italy, it twice was awarded with Distinguished Unit Citations for missions in Germany and Austria. When hostilities in Europe ended, the group was assigned to expedite the movement of troops and equipment from Europe back to the United States, The 484th Bombardment Wing was organized in February 1963 at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia. The wing temporarily inherited the lineage, honors, and history of the 484th group, although the group was not reactivated as a wing element. In 1966 all wing aircraft, crews, all wing headquarters personnel and most wing support personnel were deployed to the 3d Air Division for combat operations over Vietnam. The wing was inactivated on 25 March 1967 as part of the closure of Turner. In 1984, the group and wing were consolidated into a single unit. History World War II The 484th Bombardment Group (Heavy) was constituted on 14 September 1943 as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment group and activated on 20 September at Harvard Army Air Field, Nebraska. Its original squadrons were the newly activated 824th, 825th, and 826th Bombardment Squadrons and the 827th Bombardment Squadron, which moved to Harvard AAF after two years of anti-submarine warfare experience on the east coast of the United States The group completed training at Harvard AAF in February 1944 and then deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations in Southern Italy. It departed the United States in early March and arrived in April at Torretto Airfield, Italy, where it was part of Fifteenth Air Force. The group was redesignated 484th Bombardment Group (Pathfinder) in May 1944 but did not perform pathfinder functions. It became the 484th Bombardment Group, Heavy again in November 1944 and operated primarily as a strategic bombardment organization, April 1944 – April 1945. The 484th attacked such targets as oil refineries, oil storage plants, aircraft factories, heavy industry,