The 330th Air Service Group (ASG) was activated in February 1942. It was originally designated as the 330th Air Base Group. Over the next three years the unit name would change four more times, with their final designation as the 330th ASG coming in January 1945.
Name changes were routine in the other units that made up the 330th ASG as well. In the case of the 1673rd Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Company, they had five different unit designations in just 53 weeks!
The graphic below shows the nine different units (squadrons, companies, platoons) that made up the 330th ASG until January 1944. The graphic shows when each unit was formed, when it joined the 330th ASG, how it’s designation changed over time, and where it was stationed.
(Note: For clarity, in most cases this website will refer to each unit by it’s final designation. This eliminates the need for the reader to carry a copy of the graphic below as a “cheat sheet” to keep track of what unit is being discussed.)
The original organization of Air Service Groups (ASGs) included nine different companies, squadrons, or platoons (as shown in the preceding graphic.) This allowed each ASG to effectively support an Aircraft Group that may be operating at two dispersed airfields. As the war in the Pacific progressed, the need, and sometimes the opportunity, to disperse aircraft diminished. So, as planning advanced for sending B-29s to airfields in the Marianas, the ASGs that would support them were reorganized. These reorganized units were briefly designated as “Air Service Group (Special).”
The graphic below illustrates how these changes impacted the 330th ASG in January 1944. The two major changes were:
(1) Six of the subordinate commands were deactivated and consolidated into three remaining squadrons – the Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron, the 52nd Engineering Squadron, and the 301st Material Squadron.
(2) The officers and enlisted men were redistributed within the remaining squadrons, or spun off into other units, including providing a cadre of officers and 356 enlisted men to form the newly activated 358th Air Service Group (Special). Among the men no longer part of the 330th ASG were the 99 African American soldiers of the 2006th Quartermaster Company Truck (Aviation). The Executive Order to integrate the US Armed Services was still 4-1/2 years away. So, these soldiers were not allowed to remain with the consolidated squadrons of either the 330th or newly formed 358th ASGs.
