The Beginning
The history of the 8th Fighter Wing began on Aug. 10, 1948, when the Air Force established the unit, making it available for activation. The wing existed only on paper awaiting assignment of personnel and equipment. The actual activation took place the next week, on 18 August 1948, at Ashiya Airfield, Japan. The 8th Fighter Wing did not serve in World War II. However, it does share ties with a World War II fighter group. In World War II, the 8th Fighter Group earned several combat honors. In the late 1940s, the Air Force replaced operational groups with wings. The Air Force decided to preserve the heritage of the then-inactive World War II groups by bestowing the campaign credits and awards of the groups on their like-numbered wings. While today's 8th Fighter Wing shares in the achievements of the 8th Fighter Group and carries the group's World War II awards and campaign streamers on its flag, the 8th Fighter Wing and the 8th Fighter Group are not the same unit. Rather, the former 8th Fighter Group is now known as the 8th Operations Group.
The history of the group stretches all the way back to 1923. On 24 March of that year, the Army authorized the unit on the inactive list as the 8th Pursuit Group. For the next eight years, however, the group consisted only of a name on the Army's list of units available for activation, with no personnel assigned. Activation of the group finally came on 1 April 1931 at Langley Field, Virginia. Initially, the group had two flying squadrons assigned, but both operated from other bases. The 36th Pursuit Squadron flew from Selfridge Field, Michigan, while the 55th Pursuit Squadron operated from Mather Field, California. In June 1932 the group reorganized. It gained the 33rd and 35th Pursuit Squadrons, activated at Langley; the 36th moved from Selfridge to Langley to join the rest of the group. At the same time, the 55th Pursuit Squadron transferred to another group, leaving the 8th with three squadrons.
At Langley the group trained in such aircraft as the PB-2, P-6, and P-12. Over the next several years, the group transitioned to such newer aircraft as the P-35, P-36, P-39, and P-40. Significantly, on 11 October 1940, the 8th Pursuit Group participated in a test designed to compare the take-off runs of standard Navy and Army aircraft. On that day, 24 P-40s from the 8th Pursuit Group launched from the USS Wasp, an aircraft carrier, and returned to Langley Field. That experiment, the first time that Army planes had flown from a Navy carrier, foreshadowed the use of the ship in the ferry role that it performed admirably in World War II.
In November 1940, the 8th Pursuit Group moved to Mitchel Field, New York, where it became responsible for the air defense of New York City. The 33rd Pursuit Squadron transferred to another unit in Iceland in August 1941, leaving the group with two flying squadrons, the 35th and 36th.
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