The 506th Air Expeditionary Group (506 AEG) is a provisional United States Air Force unit. The group is assigned to the United States Air Forces Central 332d Air Expeditionary Wing, stationed at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. The 506 AEG secures the base, conducts safe flight operations and supports the nation builders in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and other US Air Forces Central and US Central Command contingency plans. As a provisional unit, the 506 AEG may be activated or inactivated at any time. The group's lineage begins in 1944 as the 301st Fighter Group which flew P-51 Mustangs as part of Twentieth Air Force in the Western Pacific. During the Cold War, the unit was a Strategic Air Command fighter-escort unit and later active with Tactical Air Command and the Air Force Reserve as a tactical fighter unit. Units The 506 AEG is composed of: 506th Expeditionary Medical Services Squadron 506th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron 506th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron 506th Expeditionary Logistic Readiness Squadron 506th Expeditionary Communications Squadron 506th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, inactivated 28 May 2010 506th Expeditionary Services Squadron Kirkuk Provincial Reconstruction Team, or PRT. Approximately 1,000 active-duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard Airmen were assigned to the 506 AEG during any given Air and Space Expeditionary Force rotation. Additionally, approximately 5,000 Soldiers were assigned to Forward-Operating Base Warrior. Among the base agencies the 506 AEG actively supported are: 52d Expeditionary Flying Training Squadron 521st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron, advised Iraqi Air Forces' 1st and 3rd Sqdns, inactivated 10 January 2010 521st Base Support Unit 727th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron, Detachment 1 History World War II The 506th AEG traces its history back to the 506th Fighter Group, Single Engine, which was established on 5 October 1944 and activated on 21 October 1944, at Lakeland Army Air Field/Drane Field, Florida. The group consisted of three squadrons: 457th, 458th and the 462d Fighter Squadrons. From its activation, the planned mission of the 506th was very long range (VLR) escort missions of B-29 Superfortress bombers in the Pacific Theater. Flying almost all models P-51 Mustang which could be sent to Lakeland for training, the group's training regiment centered on learning cruise control techniques that would produce maximum range from the Mustangs. It also included practice scrambles, assembly and landing procedures, escort formations, aerial gunnery and bombing practice, and an occasional dogfight. A month after the 506th started flying,