World War II The 8th Fighter Squadron traces its origins to the
U.S. Army Air Forces'
49th Pursuit Group, formed at
Selfridge Field, Michigan on 20 November 1940. The
8th Pursuit Squadron was equipped with
Seversky P-35s that were transferred from the
1st Pursuit Group when it left for
Rockwell Field, California. In May 1941, the squadron proceeded to
Morrison Field in
West Palm Beach, Florida, to train in the
Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter. After having used
Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, Curtiss P-40 Warhawks and
Republic P-47 Thunderbolts, the 8th was equipped completely in September 1944 with P-38's, which were used to fly long-range escort and attack missions to
Mindanao,
Halmahera,
Seram, and
Borneo. The unit arrived in the Philippines in October 1944, shortly after the assault landings on
Leyte and engaged enemy fighters, attacked shipping in
Ormoc Bay, supported ground forces, and covered the Allied invasion of
Luzon.
Korean War With the outbreak of the
Korean War in June 1950, the 8th was one of the first USAF squadrons dispatched to Korea from Japan, initially operating propeller-driven F-51Ds to cover the evacuation of civilians from
Kimpo and
Suwon. Next, it flew close air support missions to help slow the advancing North Korean armies. Later, it turned to the interdiction of enemy troops, supplies and communications from Misawa. However its short-range F-80Cs meant that the 49th had to move to South Korea in order for them to be effective. By late 1957, however, worldwide
Department of Defense budget restrictions during FY 1958 meant that the
49th Fighter-Bomber Wing and its elements would be inactivated as part of a reduction of the USAF units based in Japan. However, the nuclear-capable F-100 was troublesome to the host French Government, the French decreed that all United States
nuclear weapons and delivery aircraft had to be removed from French soil by July 1958. As a result, the F-100s of the 8th had to be removed from France. After negotiations with the French, the 49th Wing's commander was informed that the wing would be departing from France on 1 July 1959 and move to
Spangdahlem Air Base, West Germany. During the relocation to West Germany, the squadron deployed to
Wheelus Air Base, Libya, for gunnery training. However, not all squadron personnel moved to Spangdahlem, as many of the
10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing personnel there were almost at the end of their tours and did not want to move to
RAF Alconbury, where the 10th was moving to in order to make space for the 49th Wing. As a result, some squadron ground support personnel instead moved to
RAF Lakenheath, England to backfill vacancies there associated with the Super Sabre, while 10th Wing personnel at Spangdahlem were allowed to finish out their assignments. At Holloman, the squadron participated in
Tactical Air Command tactical exercises and firepower demonstrations to maintain combat readiness. The 8th also retained its NATO commitment to return once a year to its "dual base" home in West Germany. These deployments were known as "Crested Cap", and are listed belowi in the squadron station list. In October 1977, the 49th Wing ended its "dual-base" commitment to NATO and changed to an
air superiority mission with the wing beginning a conversion from the F-4D Phantom II to the
McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle, the 49th being the second USAF operational wing to receive the F-15A. The transition was completed 4 June 1978. Due to the change in equipment, the annual NATO deployments were taken over by the
4th Tactical Fighter Wing at
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, in 1978; however they resumed (although not on an annual basis) in 1981. In the United States, training missions was refocused on dissimilar air combat tactics for multi-theater operations, participating in numerous Red Flags, Joint Training exercises, and deployments in the Air Defense/Superiority Mission. Frequent deployments were made to
Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada to exercise with the
Northrop F-5E Tiger II "Aggressor" aircraft of the
57th Fighter Weapons Wing, and other aircraft types (including clandestine exercises with Soviet aircraft flown by the
4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron at
Tonopah Test Range Airport, Nevada). Also, after TAC absorbed the interceptor mission of
Aerospace Defense Command in 1979, the squadron maintained the TAC
NORAD air defense alert commitment in the Eagle, with the best scramble times in NORAD. In 1992, the 49th Fighter Wing underwent a number of transitions. As a result of the end of the
Cold War, reduced defense budgets were the order of the day. As a result, the 8th Fighter Squadron retired its F-15A Eagles and received the
Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighters of the
416th Fighter Squadron, which was simultaneously inactivated. Combat preparation of the fighters began immediately. The plan called for the F-117s to take off as soon as possible. Two stealth fighters roared northward into the nighttime sky at 3:38 a.m. After refueling over the Gulf near
Kuwait City, the stealth fighters split up and took separate routes over Iraq to the target area. The sun was starting to come up by the time the pilots reached
Baghdad, however on that morning Baghdad was obscured under low-level clouds. Each of the two F-117s released two bombs, which plummeted toward the bunker in which Saddam Hussein was believed to be sleeping. Release came at 5:30 a.m., 13 minutes after dawn but only five hours after the pilots first heard that such a mission might be in the offing. The strike caught Iraqi defenses completely off guard. Defensive anti-aircraft fire did not begin until the aircraft had completed the attack and were racing out of the Baghdad area. The inactivation of the 8th, however, was brief as it was reactivated on 25 Sept 2009, and equipped with the
Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor. In May 2011, the squadron became non-operational and on 15 July 2011, the 8th Fighter squadron was inactivated.
F-16 Fighting Falcon era The 8th Fighter Squadron was reactivated at
Holloman Air Force Base, with the formal activation ceremony taking place on 4 August 2017, as a
F-16 Fighting Falcon unit and part of the
54th Fighter Group, which was then a geographically separated unit of the
56th Fighter Wing from
Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. In October 2018, the Fighter Group was re-aligned under the
49th Wing when Holloman was allocated to
AETC. As a formal training unit, the personnel of the 8th FS instruct F-16 initial, transition, and instructor upgrade training. They fly alongside the
311th and
314th Fighter Squadrons at Holloman. ==Lineage==