40th Air Expeditionary Wing  The United States Air Force's 40th Air Expeditionary Wing (40 AEW) was an Air expeditionary unit located at Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, from 2001 to c. 2006. Its predecessor unit, the United States Army Air Forces 40th Bombardment Group (40th BG) was part of Twentieth Air Force during World War II. The unit served primarily in the Pacific Ocean theater and China Burma India Theater of World War II. The 40th Bomb Group's aircraft engaged in very heavy bombardment B-29 Superfortress operations against Japan. Its aircraft were identified by Triangle "S". In the postwar era, the 40th Bombardment Group was one of the original ten USAAF bombardment groups assigned to Strategic Air Command on 21 March 1946, however it was inactivated due to budget constraints on 1 August 1946. The unit was reactivated and elevated to Wing status in 1952 as a SAC B-47 Stratojet organization until the phaseout of the aircraft in 1964. Reactivated as a USAFE wing to be the host unit at Aviano Air Base, Italy in 1966 to provide support to Tactical Air Command deployed rotational elements until 1992. The 40 AEW's mission was to support combat forces in Afghanistan and other combat areas supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Operations began in October 2001. It is known that the 40 AEW B-52 Stratofortresses dropped about 58 percent of the munitions used during Operation Anaconda and had flown more than 80 sorties; releasing more than 2,000 bombs supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Bomber operations from the atoll of Diego Garcia concluded on 15 August 2006. Source: Globalsecurity.org  The 40th Bombardment Group was constituted in Puerto Rico on 22 November 1940 and activated on 1 April 1941. The unit's operational squadrons (29th, 44th and 45th) were equipped with Douglas B-18 Bolos then early B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-26 Marauder aircraft to train, and patrol the Caribbean area, later to provide air defense of the Panama Canal after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. With the diminished need for a Caribbean defense, the 40th was reassigned back to the United States and redesignated the 40th Bombardment Group (Very Heavy) in November 1943, being assigned to Pratt Army Airfield, Kansas and to the first B-29 Superfortress wing, the 58th Bombardment Wing. At Pratt, the group's squadrons (25th 44th, 45th, and 395th) engaged in transition training on the new aircraft and its new mission.