479th Flying Training Group

rdf:langString 479th Flying Training Group

rdf:langString center|60px

rdf:langString 479th Flying Training Group

rdf:langString Members of the 479th Flying Training Group salute during the playing of the National Anthem at the group's activation ceremony

rdf:langString Colonel Patrick "PDiddy" Dierig

rdf:langString Croix de Guerre with Palm

rdf:langString Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida

rdf:langString Patch with 479th Fighter-Bomber Group emblem

rdf:langString Protectores Libartatis Latin Defenders of Liberty

rdf:langString Fighter/Fighter Training

rdf:langString The 479th Flying Training Group is a United States Air Force unit, stationed at Naval Air Station Pensacola. A component of Air Education and Training Command, the group was activated on 2 October 2009. The current commander of the 479th Flying Training Group is Col Patrick "PDiddy" Dierig. The group was first activated during World War II in October 1943. After training with Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, it deployed to the European Theater of Operations, and began flying combat missions in late May 1944. It converted to the North American P-51 Mustang later in 1944. It flew escort missions and attacked ground targets, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation before flying its last operational mission in April 1945. The group remained in England following V-E Day, but returned to the United States in the fall and was inactivated at the port of embarkation in December 1945. The group was again activated as the 479th Fighter-Bomber Group in December 1952, when it assumed the personnel and equipment of an Air National Guard unit that had been mobilized for the Korean War, but was being returned to state control, although it was not fully manned until January 1953. The group was inactivated in 1957, when Tactical Air Command reorganized under the dual deputy system. It was again activated in July 1991 to replace the 479th Tactical Training Wing, which was winding down its operations at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, inactivating six months later. The group was active as a flying training organization from 2000 until 2007.