498th Nuclear Systems Wing - Cold War

Cold War

The unit was redesignated and reactivated as the 498th Tactical Missile Group at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, on 16 September 1960. It was organized on 8 Feb 1961. It was equipped with the TM-76B Mace surface-to-surface missile. The Mace was a third-generation tactical USAF missile, a follow-up of the MGM-1 Matador which had been developed in the late 1940s and early 1950s from the World-War II-era Republic-Ford JB-2. Two of the unit's World War II bomb squadrons were reactivated, the 873d and 874th Tactical Missile Squadrons to man and operate the missile sites. The Group was assigned directly to Pacific Air Forces.

The presence of the Mace missile was a sensitive matter between the United States and Japan, even though the United States still formally occupied Okinawa. The presence of the nuclear-armed Mace missile on Japanese soil was considered so sensitive that Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara directed in early 1962 that the existence of the TM-76B weapons system on Okinawa "was not to be publicized in any way." McNamara directed that the "missile, warhead section, and nose sections be transported to and from the launch sites under a canvas cover." Fearing political maneuvering and protests from Communist sympathizers on Okinawa and in Japan, the 498th TMG was directed to be "identified by initials only."

The group's existence was short, as in 1965, Secretary McNamara decided that the Army's MGM-31 Pershing missile should replace the USAF's Mace, mainly because of the Pershing's high-speed launch ability. The unit was inactivated on 8 July 1969, and the missiles returned to the United States and were expended as full-size target drones. Air Force Historical Research Agency records give the final formal date of inactivation as 31 December 1969.