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The 509th Operations Group (509 OG) is the flying component of the United States Air Force 509th Bomb Wing (509 BW), assigned to Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. It is equipped with all 20 of the USAF's B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, flown by its 393rd Bomb Squadron .
5th Composite Group (later 5th Bombardment) Group, assigned 11 January 1927, attached 12 October 1938, assigned 25 February 1942 – 29 April 1946 509th Operations Group, 6 November 1996 – c. 13 April 2018 [ 4 ]
The wing's 509th Operations Group is a direct descendant organization of the World War II 509th Composite Group (509th CG). The 509th CG had a single mission: to drop the atomic bomb . The group made history on 6 August 1945, when the Boeing B-29 Superfortress " Enola Gay ," piloted by Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr. , dropped the first atomic bomb on ...
The training and operations of the 509th Composite Group were dramatized in a Hollywood film, Above and Beyond (1952), with Robert Taylor cast in the role of Tibbets. [86] The story was retold in a partly fictionalized made-for-television film Enola Gay: The Men, the Mission, the Atomic Bomb (1980), with Patrick Duffy portraying Tibbets.
The 13th Aero Squadron was formed at Camp Kelly (later Kelly Field), Texas, on 14 June 1917.. 13th Aero Squadron – SPAD XIII, Souilly Aerodrome, France. 1918. The "Devil’s Own Grim Reapers" as they came to be known was a Pursuit (Fighter) squadron on the Western Front in France during 1918, flying the French SPAD S.XIII.
Operations Order No. 35 was an order issued by the 509th Composite Group on August 5, 1945 for the atomic bombing mission on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.The Order was signed by Operations Officer Major James I. Hopkins, Jr. who would later fly Big Stink in the August 9, 1945 atomic bombing raid on Nagasaki, Japan, under the call sign "Dimples 90".
A representation of The Great Artiste is on static display at the "Spirit Gate" of Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, now home base of the 509th Operations Group.The aircraft, originally B-29 44-61671, which served as an SB-29 "Super Dumbo" rescue aircraft during the Korean War, was refurbished to depict The Great Artiste and moved to Whiteman after the closure of Pease Air Force Base in 1991.
He then became the Chief of Safety for the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, from June 2009 to June 2010, followed by his role as the Deputy Commander of the 509th Operations Group until March 2011. Spalding then commanded the 509th OG from March 2011 to April 2012 and served as the Vice Commander of the 509th Bomb Wing until June 2013. [2]