12th Operations Group

The 12th Operations Group is the flying component of the 12th Flying Training Wing of the United States Air Force's Air Education and Training Command. The group headquarters is located at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. The unit's main missions include aircraft instructor pilot training in Beechcraft T-6 Texan II, Northrop T-38C Talon and Raytheon T-1 Jayhawk aircraft, Air Force and Navy undergraduate combat systems officer training and fighter fundamentals student pilot instructor training in the Northrop AT-38C.

The group was first activated in January 1941 as the 12th Bombardment Group. After training and flying antisubmarine patrols off the Pacific Coast, the group moved to Egypt in July 1942. In the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, it took part in the Western Desert campaign and Italian campaign, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation. In 1944, it moved to the China Burma India Theater and participated in the Burma campaign before the war's end. The unit returned to the United States in January 1946 and was inactivated on arriving at the port of embarkation.

The group was briefly active in 1947 to 1948, but was not manned or equipped due to budgetary restrictions. It was activated on 1 November 1950 as the 12th Fighter-Escort Group, but transferred its resources to the 12th Fighter-Escort Wing in February 1951 and was inactivated in June 1952 as Strategic Air Command adopted the dual deputy organization.

With the implementation of the Objective Wing Organization, the unit was activated on 15 December 1991, as the 12th Operations Group and assigned to the 12th Flying Training Wing.

The group contains seven squadrons(Tail Code: RA):

The group was first activated as the 12th Bombardment Group at McChord Field, Washington on 15 January 1941 as the United States began building up its armed forces after the beginning of World War II in Europe, drawing its initial cadre from the 17th Bombardment Group. The 81st, 82d, and 83d Bombardment Squadrons were the group's first components, while the 19th Reconnaissance Squadron was attached to the 12th. Although designated a light bomber group, the unit was initially equipped with a mix of Douglas B-18 Bolo and Douglas B-23 Dragon medium bombers and a few Stearman PT-17 trainers. In August 1941, the Air Corps converted its reconnaissance squadrons attached to light bomber groups and the 19th Reconnaissance Squadron became the 94th Bombardment Squadron and was assigned to the group.

At the time of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, the group began flying antisubmarine patrols and watching for signs of an invasion. At the end of December 1941, the group was designated a medium bomber unit, consistent with its equipment. This resulted in the 94th Squadron again becoming a reconnaissance unit, as the 94th Reconnaissance Squadron. In February, the group moved to Esler Field, Louisiana, where it began converting to the North American B-25 Mitchell. With the Mitchells, the 94th resumed the bombardment mission, this time as the 434th Bombardment Squadron in April. In early May, the group deployed to Stockton Army Air Field, California, where half its crews stood alert during daylight hours. After the defeat of the Japanese Navy in the Battle of Midway, the group returned to Esler Field.

In June 1942, while in the United States for a conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill received word that the British Eighth Army had been defeated in a tank battle with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps near Tobruk, Libya, and was retreating back toward Alexandria, Egypt. Churchill immediately made an urgent plea for military aid to help stop Rommel from over-running Egypt, the Suez Canal and the Arabian oil fields. The United States dispatched the 12th and two other groups to the Middle East to reinforce the British forces there.