Ninth Air Force
A major United States Air Force command, which forms United States Central Command air component (AFCENT). Its headquarters in the U.S. are located at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolin.
World War Two
On 28 June 1942, Ninth Air Force was created out of a need to have a headquarters for the various air units continuing to arrive in North Africa. [1]. After North Africa stabilized, it moved into tactical support in the Italian theater, and then to Britain.
In the U.K., the medium bombers of the Eighth Air Force transferred to the Ninth, which, before the Battle of Normandy, concentrated on attacking German field infrastructure, sharpening its tactical support skills while the Eighth concentrated on the strategic bombing of Germany. As the XIX Tactical Air Command, it worked extremely closely with Third United States Army under GEN George Patton, who had an excellent working relationship with The XIX commander, Elwood "Pete" Quesada.
Postwar
It was briefly deactivated, but returned to a largely training and unit readiness role during the Korean War and Vietnam War.
Gulf War
The Ninth's commander, Chuck Horner, had the dual role of heading AFCENT, including the coordination of U.S. Navy and multinational air forces, as well as the 9th Air Force. Beginning with the air campaign planning, AFCENT directed an unprecedented series of attacks against Iraq, at a far higher technological level and intensity yet seen in warfare.
Iraq War
Current operations
As well as remaining AFCENT under CENTCOM is also an intermediate headquarters under Air Combat Command and is responsible for five active-duty flying wings, as well as overseeing the operational readiness of 18 designated units of the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.[2]
In CENTCOM, its units include:
- 379th Air Expeditionary Wing
- 380th Air Expeditionary Wing
- 386th Air Expeditionary Wing
deployed at bases including:
- Bagram AB, Afghanistan
- Ali AB, Iraq
- Al Asad AB, Iraq
- Joint Base Balad, Iraq
- Kirkuk AB, Iraq
- Sather AB, Iraq
- Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan
In the U.S., it controls:
- 1st Fighter Wing - Langley AFB, VA
- 4th Fighter Wing - Seymour-Johnson AFB, NC
- 5th Combat Communications Group - Robins AFB, GA
- 18th Air Support Operations Group - Pope AFB, NC
- 20th Fighter Wing - Shaw AFB, SC
- 23rd Wing - Moody AFB, GA
- 33rd Fighter Wing - Eglin AFB, FL
- 823rd REDHORSE Squadron - Hurlburt Field, FL