HISTORY OF THE 20 FIGHTER GROUP - Shaw Air Force Base

Maintenance consolidation lasted only two years, and on 8 July 1964, the wing dissolved the Consolidated Aircraft
Maintenance Squadron. Two months earlier, on 14 May 1964, the 20 th Armament and Electronics Maintenance Squadron
and the 20 th Field Maintenance Squadron reemerged and the wing activated the 20 th Organizational Maintenance
Squadron (formerly Periodic). On 8 July 1964, two new maintenance squadrons joined the wing organization -- the 320 th
Munitions Maintenance Squadron and the 20 th Flight line Maintenance Squadron. The latter was stationed at RAF
Woodbridge with the 79 th TFS for less than two years. It was inactivated on 15 December 1965, when the 79 th TFS
absorbed its personnel and equipment. The complexion of the 20 th ’s maintenance community changed again on 1
January 1966 with the inactivation of the 20 th Organizational Maintenance Squadron. The wing parceled out the personnel
and equipment of that squadron to maintenance components of the 55 th and 77 th TFS.
Rotations to Turkey Begin
Monthly rotations to Cigli AB, Turkey were conducted from July 1966 to June 1970 and to Aviano AB, Italy from December
1966 to June 1970. Political closures of US bases in France forced opening of RAF Greenham Common under 20 th TFW
management to handle personnel overflow in January 1967.
The General Dynamics F-111 was demonstrated for the first time in England at RAF Wethersfield.
On 1 July 1967, the administrative sections of the wing and combat support group merged to form the 20 th Base
Headquarters Squadron. Though it never achieved formal squadron status by definition, that organization retained its
unofficial designation until its demise on 1 June 1989 when it was functionally replaced by the 20 th Mission Support
Squadron. A final, though minor, organizational revision during the decade of the ‘60s featured the redesignation of the
20 th Armament and Electronics Squadron as the 20 th Avionics Maintenance Squadron on 1 January 1969.
Wheelus Closes
A military coup in Libya forced the closure of Wheelus AB in September 1969 and initiation of 20 th TFW weapons training
detachment operations at Torrejon AB, Spain in November 1969.
Detachment 1, 20 th TFW was established at RAF Upper Heyford on 10 December 1969.
All three flying squadrons rotated to Zaragoza, Spain for weapons training from January to March 1970.
Relocation to Upper Heyford F-111 Era Begins
Headquarters, 20 th TFW relocated from RAF Wethersfield to RAF Upper Heyford on 1 June 1970. For the first time since
it left Virginia in 1952, all three of its flying squadrons were united on one home base. Less than three months later, the
wing began converting to a new aircraft, the General Dynamics F-111E Aardvark (unofficially). On 12 September 1970,
the first two F-111Es arrived at RAF Upper Heyford. The last of the 20 th ’s F-100s transferred to the Air National Guard on
12 February 1971 and in November of that year the wing’s F-111s were declared operationally ready.
Reorganization of the wing’s maintenance community continued and, on 1 February 1972, the 20 th Organizational
Maintenance Squadron was activated for a second time, shifting maintenance personnel and equipment back out of the
flying squadrons. Eight months later, on 1 September 1972, the 320 th Munitions Maintenance Squadron was redesignated
as the 20 th Munitions Maintenance Squadron.