The 348th Fighter Group is an inactive unit of the United States Air Force. Its last assignment was with V Fighter Command, stationed at Itami Air Base, Japan. It was inactivated on 10 May 1946.
During World War II, the group operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater. It was the most successful P-47 Thunderbolt unit in the Pacific War. The Group's commander, Colonel Neel Kearby ran up 20+ kills including a 6 kills-in-1-mission for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The Group scored 396 kills, over half of all the kills credited to Fifth Air Force P-47s, and won two United States Distinguished Unit Citations. The Group had 20 P-47 aces including Bob Rowland, Lawrence O'Neill, Bill Banks, Bill Dunham, Walt Benz, Sam Blair and George Davis, who would later be awarded the Medal of Honor flying F-86s during the Korean War.
On 24 May 1946, the group was redesignated as the 108th Fighter Group and allocated to the New Jersey Air National Guard.
Famous quotes containing the words fighter and/or group:
“A pleasant smell of frying sausages
Attacks the sense, along with an old, mostly invisible
Photograph of what seems to be girls lounging around
An old fighter bomber, circa 1942 vintage.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.”
—William Stafford (1914–1941)