Eighth Air Force
A major United States Air Force command, currently part of Air Combat Command but tasked by Unified Combatant Commands for operations, the Eighth Air Force was formed in 1942. The original 8th was formed in the U.S., but moved to England approximately a month later, and assigned to the strategic bombing of Germany. Today, the organization contains heavy bomber, information warfare, and intelligence assets of the U.S. military; 8th Air Force is the primary air component for United States Strategic Command.
World War II
The Eighth was eventually redesignated United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe, a command that continues as the Air Force component, United States Air Forces in Europe, of United States European Command. Its WWII commanders were Ira Eaker and Jimmy Doolittle; it controlled escort fighters and reconnaissance aircraft as well as heavy bombers. At its largest, the command could put over 2000 heavy bombers and 1000 escort fighters over Europe, in a single mission.
After the European war ended, the headquarters moved to Okinawa, but did not see action.
Cold War
In 1946, the command moved to an interim location when it joined the Strategic Air Command, and then to Carswell Air Force Base in Texas. It had little role in Korea, other than deploying a fighter wing.
Over the next years, the 8th trained for the strategic nuclear mission, retiring the last of its propeller-driven bombers and tankers, and converting to an all-jet force centered around the B-52 bomber. It also took control of intercontinental ballistic missiles, although they are now under the Fourteenth Air Force.
Vietnam War
The Eighth provided heavy bomber and tanker support to U.S. operations in Southeast Asia. Ironically, the B-52 bombers, designed for strategic nuclear attacks on Soviet and Chinese targets, principally operated in a tactical support role of mass bombing in South Vietnam. The strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam, with the exception of an 11-day period in 1972, Operation LINEBACKER II, was carried out by Air Force and Navy fighter-bombers, designed as tactical aircraft.
1980s
Since the unit controlled most long-range air refueling tankers, it supported the fighter-bombers that carried out the 1986 strike against Libya (Operation ELDORADO CANYON), as well as operations in Grenada in 1983 and Panama in 1989.
Gulf War
The first air-launched missiles in the 1991 Gulf War came from Eighth Air Force B-52's, demonstrating the capability to strike worldwide from U.S. bases. They flew 36-hour round-trip missions from their home at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, to Iraq, launched AGM-86 Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles, and returned, the mission refueling many times.
Subsequently, forward-based B-52s, principally operating from Diego Garcia but covertly from Saudi Arabia and Egypt, bombed Iraqi forces in the field. In 1998, they took part in the Operation Desert Fox missions against Iraq.
NATO operations in the Balkans
Returning to combat in Europe after half a century, all three types of U.S. heavy bombers, the B-52, B-1 Lancer, and, in its first combat, B-2 Spirit operated over Yigoslavia, as part of the NATO force. The B-1s and B-52s operated from the U.K., but the B-2's flew from their home, Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
Middle East and Southwest Asia
They continue to provide bomber and C3I-ISR aircraft support in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas. The latter types include E-3 Sentry, E-8 Joint STARS, RC-135 COMBAT SENT and RC-135 RIVET JOINT aircraft.
Restructuring
Eighth Air Force became more than a bomber force in 2001, when the Air Force Intelligence Agency's wings came under the Eighth, which became both a bomber and inforation warfare force. The intelligence wings were supplemented with information operations wings and the Air Force Network Operations and Security Center.