An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

315th Airlift Wing History: Who we are

Advenium, I Will Come, was the motto of the 3-1-5 in the beginning and over 60 years later, those very same words are as true today with the 315th Airlift Wing as they were for our comrades with the 315th Troop Carrier Group back in 1942. 



One of the primary missions of the 315th AW is to prepare, equip and train personnel to be a source of augmentation for our active duty counterparts in the 437th AW.  This augmentation is not limited to, but can be, as part of a rapid response to natural disaster relief, because of the expansion of the Air Force strategic mission, or in the form of aeromedical airlift capabilities.

Additionally, our Wing performs a wide range of peacetime missions and, as part of Team Charleston, integrates seamlessly with our hosts the 437th AW to provide support for their Air Mobility Command taskings.

What follows is a condensed version of the History of the 3-1-5, a perpetual chronology of the Wing’s long history.  The story begins at Olmstead Field in Pennsylvania in 1942 and continues today here in Charleston, South Carolina. There have been many stops in between.  The missions, the aircraft, and of course the people have changed since 1942 but that motto, Advenium, and its meaning is still as constant today as it was over 60 years ago.

Current as of 2021