CHAPTER – 13 LINEAGE AND HONORS

Lineage Terms

Each unit and establishment of the Air Force possesses a separate identity along with its own lineage and history. The War Department and, later, the Department of the Air Force, have sought to preserve these separate organizational identities. In recent years, however, the Department of the Air Force introduced two changes in this basic policy. In a major adjustment, the service temporarily bestowed, under certain conditions, the history and honors of combat groups on similarly numbered combat wings. This practice began in 1954 and continues today. A second, minor adjustment substituted the Table of Organization (T/O) units and establishments created in 1948 for the Table of Distribution (T/D) organizations using in the 1947-48 service test of the wing-base plan. This volume treats these initial T/D and subsequent T/O organizations as single entities instead of separate establishments and units.

Between 1947 and 1977 the Air Force was composed of primary elements called units and establishments. The units divide among three primary categories: squadrons (later, the numbered flight was added as a “small” squadron), miscellaneous (a category including such organizations as bands, infirmaries, hospitals, etc.), and headquarters. The headquarters units served as headquarters for establishments. Establishments are Air Force organizations at group echelon or higher, having a headquarters unit as their primary component.

Headquarters units were “designated and organized” for the wings included in the 1947-1948 service test of the wing-base plan, and discontinued when the service test concluded in 1948. Headquarters units for the wings subsequently were “constituted and activated” (1948-1959 and 1968-current), or were “constituted, activated, and organized” (1959-1968). The units were “inactivated” (1948-1959 and 1968-current), or “discontinued and inactivated” (1959-1968), when no longer needed. The establishments, to which the headquarters units belonged, however, were “established” concurrently with the designation or constitution of their headquarters unit. If the Air Force disbanded a wing’s headquarters unit, the wing was “disestablished,” and, when the headquarters unit was reconstituted, the wing was “reestablished.” Otherwise, the lineage terms for establishments parallel those of the units.

The lineage of each wing establishment contained in this book is ultimately determined by the language employed in the War Department and Department of the Air Force letters and command orders relating to organizational actions. For a complete understanding of lineage and honors terms used in this document one should to refer to Air Force Historical Research Agency’s “A Guide to United States Air Force Lineage and Honors”

Headquarters Lineage

AIR FORCE WEATHER AGENCY,

OFFUTT AFB, NEBRASKA

MISSION: Air Force Weather Agency manages and directs two weather groups tasked with providing operational support to active and reserve components of the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, and other Department of Defense agencies as directed by the Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force. This support includes providing the oversight, direction, and control of the programs and operations within the AFWA commander’s responsibility. Headquarters AFWA also provides the professional, technical, administrative, and logistic support necessary for the operations of the headquarters.

LINEAGE: Constituted on 13 April in 1943 it was activated on 14 April 1943 as the Weather Wing and assigned to the Flight Control Command at Washington, D.C. The wing moved to Asheville, North Carolina, on 3 May 1943 and was redesignated as the Army Air Forces Weather Wing and reassigned to the Headquarters, Army Air Forces on 6 July 1943. It was redesignated as the Army Air Forces Weather Service on 1 July 1945 and moved to Langley Field, Virginia, on 7 January 1946. It was redesignated Air Weather Service and reassigned to Air Transport Command on 13 March 1946. It moved to Gravelly Point, Virginia, on 14 June 1946 and was reassigned to the Military Airlift Transport Service (later Military Airlift Command) on 1 June 1948. Air Weather Service moved to Andrews AFB, Maryland, on 1 December 1948 and to Scott AFB, Illinois, on 23 June 1958.Air Weather Service was redesignated Air Weather Service a field operating agency and reassigned to Directorate of Air and Space Operations, Headquarters Air Force 1 April 1991. Air Weather Service was redesignated Air Force Weather Agency and moved to Offutt AFB, Nebraska, 17 October 1997.

AWARDS: Service streamer, American Theater, World War II, 7 December 1941-2 March 1946. Air Force Organizational Excellence Award for 1 May 1984-30 April 1986; 1May86-30Apr88; 1 Jan 91 – 30 Apr 92; 1Sep93–30Sep95; 1Oct95–30Sep96; 1Sep96–30Sep98; 1Oct98–30Sep99; 1Oct99–30Sep01; 1Oct01–30Sep03; 1 Apr 2007 – 31 Dec 2009.

FIRST EMBLEM (see square 2): Approved on 8 September 1942. The first Air Weather Service emblem was a distinctive, disc-shaped badge. SIGNIFICANCE: Performance of Air Weather Service day and night was indicated by light blue (left inside) and black (right inside) of the disc. The white anemometer cups, bordered in golden yellow, are the principal instruments used in weather forecasting and are symbolic of the performance. The golden yellow fleur-de-lis represents participation of the weather service (American Expeditionary Forces) in France during World War I. MOTTO: COELUM AD PROELIUM ELIGE translates from Latin as “CHOOSE THE WEATHER FOR ACTION.”

SECOND EMBLEM (see square 3): The Air Weather Service Shield emblem was approved for use on Air Weather Service headquarters, group, and wing flags with the appropriate unit designation in the scroll on 24 July 1952. On 31 January 1961 the shield emblem was approved for all uses. Two weeks later, on 13 February, the old disc emblem and motto were retired. The significance was updated in 1963 to read as follows: First participation in combat by U.S. Army Weather Service took place in France during World War I and is commemorated in the Air Weather Service emblem by the golden yellow fleur-de-lis. Performance of weather duties both day and night is indicated on the gold-bordered shield by light blue, to the viewer’s left, and black backgrounds, which divide the shield vertically. Three white (gold trimmed) anemometer cups representing the continual collection of weather data serve to identify the round-the-clock, round-the-world functions of the U.S. Air Force Air Weather Service, a technical service of the Military Air Transport Service (later Military Airlift Command).In 1998 Air Force Historical Agency approved the name change from Air Weather Service to Air Force Weather Agency.

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