4750th Air Defense Wing

4750th Air Defense Wing
A B-26 Invader of the 4750th with a Ryan Firebee drone under its wing
Active	1953-1959
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Interceptor Weapons Training
Role	Air Defense
Decorations	Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
Commanders
Notable commander	Colonel Robert P. Baldwin
Insignia
4750th Air Defense Wing emblem

The 4750th Air Defense Wing is a discontinued United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the 73d Air Division, Air Defense Command, (ADC) at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, where it was inactivated in 1960.

The wing was first organized as the 4750th Training Wing at Yuma County Airport in 1953, when ADC's gunnery training program expanded from a squadron sized unit to a wing. The wing conducted interceptor aircraft training for ADC at Yuma (later Vincent Air Force Base) until moving to MacDill in 1959. Shortly afterward, the wing was discontinued and the ADC training program transferred to another wing.

The wing was established at Yuma County Airport in September 1953 as the 4750th Training Wing (Air Defense) when the Air Defense Command fighter gunnery training program there expanded. The gunnery program had been established at Yuma when the 4750th Air Base Squadron (Gunnery Training) was organized in 1951. The squadron had expanded to group strength in 1952 and was assigned to the wing when the wing was organized The wing specialized in air-to-air weapons training and testing for Air Defense Command. The wing also acted as the USAF Host organization for Vincent Air Force Base.

After 1953, gunnery training at Yuma ended and the base concentrated on air-to-air rocketry, as it developed tactics to be employed in air-to-air rocket firing. The 4750th conducted a project on night rocket firing in 1955. The wing also participated in Exercise Checkpoint, a joint exercise with Strategic Air Command (SAC) in which wing aircraft attempted to intercept and "destroy" SAC bombers simulating an attack on the southwestern United States. In February 1955, the wing was assigned a second group, the 4756th Air Defense Group, which was stationed across the country at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. Rocketry training for Northrop F-89 Scorpions and Lockheed F-94 Starfires moved to Moody, while that for North American F-86D Sabres remained at Yuma.