Twelfth Air Force

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The Twelfth Air Force ( German  12th US Air Force ), since 2008 also Air Forces Southern ( AFSOUTH ), is a Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force that has been active since 1942 and is subordinate to the Air Combat Command . It forms the air component of the United States Southern Command . Their headquarters are at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base , Arizona . The command acts as the primary Warfighting Headquarters (WFHQ) for conventional fighter and bomber aircraft within the Air Force. It is responsible for the constant readiness of several active squadrons ( wings ) and other subordinate units.

Founded on August 20, 1942 in Bolling Field , District of Columbia, the 12th Air Force was a combat command of the United States Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean region during World War II and was involved in operations in the Africa and Italy campaigns and other missions in the Mediterranean and southern Europe involved. During the Cold War she was part of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) and from 1958 to the Tactical Air Command . Several of their subordinate units were involved in the Vietnam War and the Second Gulf War . In the war on terror since 2001, numerous subordinate units operated under the jurisdiction of the United States Central Command .

history

Second World War

The Twelfth Air Force was formed in August 1942 on the US west coast in preparation for the Army Air Forces' participation in Operation Torch and then moved to Great Britain for training purposes. It consisted of the XII Bomber Command , XII Air Support Command and XII Fighter Command as well as the directly subordinate 51st Troop Carrier Wing and two reconnaissance groups. On September 23, James Harold Doolittle officially took command of the formation and Hoyt S. Vandenberg became its chief of staff. From November 1942, the 12th AF took part in the invasion of French North Africa and the subsequent operations of the Tunisian campaign, with the units subordinate to it being integrated into the complicated Anglo-American command structure of the Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF), which operated on the Casablanca Conference had been agreed and lasted until September 1, 1943. The 12th Air Force at this time was more or less a paper formation, the command of which was officially held by the NAAF commander, Carl A. Spaatz .

At the end of August 1943, after the successful invasion of Sicily , the Twelfth AF received several groups from the Ninth Air Force, which had been relocated to Great Britain . The heavy bomber units were transferred to the newly established Fifteenth Air Force in October 1943 , and the 12th Air Force was converted into a purely tactical air fleet. In December 1943, John K. Cannon took command of the 12th AF von Spaatz, which had been relocated to Italy, when it went to England to form the new headquarters of the US Strategic Air Forces in Europe . Cannon had previously led the XII Air Support Command , the XII Bomber Command and the Northwest African Training Command and had been Arthur Coningham's deputy in the Northwest African Tactical Air Force .

The 12th Air Force was involved in all phases of the Italian campaign and also flew missions during Operation Dragoon , the invasion of southern France in August 1944, as well as over the Balkans and Austria. The XII Bomber Command was disbanded in Corsica in June 1944 . In November 1944, the XXII Tactical Air Command was formed by renaming the XII Fighter Command . In early April 1945 Benjamin W. Chidlaw received command of the 12th AF after Cannon had succeeded Ira C. Eakers as Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces .

After the end of the war in Europe, the 12th AF was deactivated on August 31, 1945. One of their sub-commands, the XII Tactical Air Command, was assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe and was temporarily stationed in occupied Germany.

Post War and Cold War

Reactivated on May 17, 1946 at March Field, California, the 12th Air Force was subordinated to the Tactical Air Command , which had just been formed . In the following years it was the first numbered air fleet to be equipped with jet aircraft ( Lockheed P-80 ). This was followed by participation in several maneuvers in which triphibian operations were practiced. In December 1948, the headquarters was moved to Brooks Air Force Base (Texas) and the air fleet was placed under the newly formed Continental Air Command , with responsibility for the southern United States (Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico). It was deactivated in June 1950.

The air fleet was reactivated on January 21, 1951 in Wiesbaden and placed under the United States Air Forces in Europe . In April 1952 it was integrated into the NATO defense structure as the first US Air Force Association and formed the 4th Allied Tactical Air Force of the Allied Air Forces Central Europe with Canadian and French units .

At the beginning of 1958 it was transferred back to the USA, where the air fleet was again subordinated to the Tactical Air Command. Their new headquarters was James Connally Air Force Base in Texas. Subordinate units were subsequently in action in the conflict in Formosa Street in 1958, in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and in the conflict in the Dominican Republic in 1965 ( Operation Power Pack ).

During the Vietnam War , the 12th Air Force and the 9th Air Force took over the training of replacements for the tactical fighter, reconnaissance and troop transport units on the Southeast Asian theater of war from 1965 onwards. In September 1968, Connally AFB closed and Bergstrom Air Force Base , also in Texas, was moved to new headquarters.

After the American engagement in Vietnam ended, the focus was again on training and maintaining a permanent intervention reserve. In late 1983, parts of the 12th Air Force took part in the US invasion of Grenada . In January 1987, the air fleet was regionally subordinated to the United States Southern Command . In 1989 she took part in the US invasion of Panama .

Since 1991

After the end of the Cold War, the mission of the 12th Air Force turned into a threefold mission: fighting organized crime (primarily drug trafficking), providing humanitarian support and maintaining partnership relations with the United States' southern neighbors. Since June 1992 the 12th AF has been functionally subordinate to the newly formed Air Combat Command . In the same year Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona was moved. From September 1994, the 12th AF took part in Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti . Parts of the air fleet were also made available for operations in Iraq, former Yugoslavia and Somalia in the 1990s.

With the expiry of the US ownership rights to the Panama Canal at the end of 1999, the American military presence in the country, which also included two bases of the 12th AF, was ended. From 2010 onwards, the 12th AF participated in the relief efforts as part of Operation Unified Response after the severe earthquake in Haiti . She is also involved in the ongoing Operation New Horizons .

Web links

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