Perpetuating the Accomplishments and heritage of
the 8th Air Force for Present and Future Generations
Please join us for the 2020 Reunion. October 21-25, 2020
Holiday Inn Memphis Airport & Conference Center
Memphis Tennessee
One of the main benefits of membership in the Society is our Magazine, the 8th AF News. We're proud to be able to present archival issues (through 2017) below:
Annual Dues fund our work including the magazine and reunions.
Why pay every year? Join or renew for two years and never miss a thing!
We are a 501C3 organization and all donations are tax-deductible.
The Mighty Eighth Air Force was activated on 28 January 1942 at the Chatham Armory in Savannah, Georgia. Located at Hunter Field, Colonel Asa N. Duncan was the first commander. Pearl Harbor had just been bombed about a month and a half earlier.
Brigadier General Ira C. Eaker (left) took the Eighth Air Force Bomber Command Headquarters to England the next month and located at High Wycombe, about 40 miles west of London and on the road to Oxford. In May 1942 Command of the 8th Air Force was assumed by Major General Carl A. 'Tooey' Spaatz (right). He established the 8th Air Force Headquarters at Bushy Park (Teddington, Middlesex), 15 miles west southwest of the center of London on 25 June 1942.
Many 8th AAF officers and men were missing in action and never accounted for as to their whereabouts. The 8th AAF suffered 26,000 deaths out of the 350,000 officers and men. By comparison, the U.S. Navy suffered 37,000 deaths out of the 4.1 million in WW II. Many bodies were exhumed and returned to the U.S. at the request of families and many families opted to allow their loved ones to remain in U.S. Military and other cemetaries in the United Kingdom and the Continent. (photo: American Cemetery, Cambridge, England)
An estimated 650,000 men and women have served in the 8th Air Force since World War II. Men and women continue the fight for liberty and peace serving in the 8th Air Force now headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisiana.
The Eighth Air Force Historical Society, founded in 1975 by an original 8th Air Force pilot, Lt. Col. John Woolnough, serves as a central organization for its individual State Chapters and Wings.
Our research database contains information on Bomber, Fighter and Service Groups, their Bases both in England and the United States, Daily Missions and Targets throughout Europe.
Click the button below to go to our Database page. Close that page to return to this page.
Our Society is one of many organizations across the country that honor and preserve the legacy of the Mighty Eighth. Please visit the websites of our wonderful partners in history.
8th AF Historical Society
68 Kimberlys Way
Jasper, GA 30143
Email: support@8thafhs.org
Phone: +1 912 748 8884
