The Second Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force. It is currently part of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC). It is headquartered at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi. It is responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and support officers.
One of the four original pre–Second World War numbered air forces, Second Air Force was activated on 19 October 1940, at McChord Field, Washington with a mission of air defense of the Northwestern United States and Upper Midwest regions. During the war, its primary mission became the organization and training of combat units prior to their deployment to the overseas combat air forces.
During the Cold War, it was one of the five Numbered Air Forces of Strategic Air Command (SAC), commanding USAF strategic bombers and missiles on a global scale. Elements of Second Air Force engaged in combat operations during the Korean War; Vietnam War, as well as Operation Desert Storm.
Read more about Second Air Force: History
Famous quotes containing the words air force, air and/or force:
“I recently learned something quite interesting about video games. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)
“An innocent man is a sin before God. Inhuman and therefore untrustworthy. No man should live without absorbing the sins of his kind, the foul air of his innocence, even if it did wilt rows of angel trumpets and cause them to fall from their vines.”
—Toni Morrison (b. 1931)
“It is the vice of our public speaking that it has not abandonment. Somewhere, not only every orator but every man should let out all the length of all the reins; should find or make a frank and hearty expression of what force and meaning is in him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)