32nd Air Division: Difference between revisions

32d Air Division
Emblem of the 32d Air Division
Active	1949–1969
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Command and Control
Part of	Air Defense Command

The 32d Air Division (32d AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command, assigned to First Air Force, being stationed at Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama. It was inactivated on 31 December 1969

Assigned to Air Defense Command (ADC) for most of its existence, the 32d organized, administered, equipped, trained, and prepared for operation, all of its assigned units. The division participated in exercises such as Creek Brave, Top Rung and Natchez Echo. Initially, it assumed responsibility for an area including Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and part of New York. During the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962), the division controlled numerous deployments and aerial sorties.

Later, beginning in 1966, the area expanded to include Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and parts of South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida when it assumed responsibility for the mission of the inactivated Montgomery Air Defense Sector. Assumed additional designation of 32d NORAD Region after activation of the NORAD Combat Operations Center at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado and reporting was transferred to NORAD from ADC at Ent AFB in April 1966.

Inactivated in November 1969 as ADC phased down its interceptor mission as the chances of a Soviet bomber attack on the United States seemed remote, its mission being consolidated into the 23d Air Division.

• Established as 32 Air Division (Defense) on 8 November 1949

Activated on 8 December 1949

Inactivated on 1 February 1952

• Organized on 1 February 1952

Inactivated on 15 August 1958

• Redesignated 32 Air Division (SAGE) on 21 October 1958

Activated on 15 November 1958

Discontinued, and inactivated, on 4 September 1963

• Redesignated 32d NORAD Region/Air Division, and activated, on 20 January 1966

Organized on 1 April 1966, replacing Montgomery Air Defense Sector

Inactivated on 31 December 1969, assets transferred to 20th NORAD Region/Air Division.

• First Air Force, 8 December 1949
• Eastern Air Defense Force, 1 September 1950-1 February 1952.
• Eastern Air Defense Force, 1 February 1952-15 August 1958
• Eastern Air Defense Force, 15 November 1958
• Air Defense Command, 1 August 1959-4 September 1963
• Air Defense Command, 20 January 1966
• Fourteenth Air Force, 1 April 1966
• First Air Force, 1 July 1968-31 December 1969

• Stewart AFB, New York, 8 December 1949 – 12 February 1952
• Hancock Field (later, Syracuse AFS), New York, 12 February 1952 – 15 August 1958
• Dobbins AFB, Georgia, 15 November 1958
• Oklahoma City AFS, Oklahoma, 1 August 1961 – 4 September 1963
• Gunter AFB, Alabama, 1 April 1966 – 31 December 1969.

• Bangor Air Defense Sector: 8 January 1957 – 15 August 1958

Topsham AFS, Maine

• Montgomery Air Defense Sector: 15 November 1958-1 July 1963

Gunter AFS, Alabama

• Oklahoma City Air Defense Sector (Manual): 1 July – 1 September 1961.

Inactivated and redesignated: 4752d Air Defense Wing

Richards-Gebaur AFB, Missouri

• List of USAF Aerospace Defense Command General Surveillance Radar Stations
• Aerospace Defense Command Fighter Squadrons
• List of United States Air Force air divisions

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency

• Winkler, David F. (1997), Searching the skies: the legacy of the United States Cold War defense radar program. Prepared for United States Air Force Headquarters Air Combat Command.
• A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
• Aerospace Defense Command publication, The Interceptor, January 1979 (Volume 21, Number 1)
• Air Force Historical Research Agency:32d Air Division