Second Air Force

Second Air Force, with headquarters at Keesler AFB, MS, is responsible for conducting basic military and technical training for Air Force enlisted members and support officers. The first stop for all Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve enlisted people is basic military training at Lackland AFB, TX. More than 36,000 new airmen were schedule to complete this intense, six-week program in 2001.

After completing BMT, airmen begin technical training in their career field specialties, primarily at five installations: Goodfellow, Lackland, and Sheppard Air Force bases in TX; Keesler AFB, MS; and Vandenberg AFB, CA. Each base is responsible for a specific portion of formal technical training airmen require to accomplish the Air Force mission. Highly trained instructors conduct technical training in specialties such as aircraft maintenance, civil engineering, medical services, computer systems, security forces, air traffic control, personnel, intelligence, fire fighting, and space and missile operations.

Commissioned officers attend technical training courses for similar career fields at the same locations.

Second Air Force also conducts specialized training for military working dogs and dog handlers at Lackland AFB, TX, for the Department of Defense and the Federal Aviation Administration. Additionally, the Inter-American Air Forces Academy at Lackland AFB, Texas, hosts more than 160 courses in aviation specialties, taught in Spanish, to students from 19 Western hemisphere countries.

Formed in the United States to provide air defense and train personnel of newly formed units in World War II, the Second was briefly a part of Air Defense Command after the war. From 1949 to 1975, as part of Strategic Air Command, it engaged in training for strategic warfare.

Second Air Force was originally established as Northwest Air District on 19 October 1940 and activated on 18 December 1940 at McChord Field, Washington where it initially was assigned to Central Defense Command, U.S.Army, and later to Western Defense Command, U.S.Army.

It was redesignated as 2d Air Force on 9 April 1941, and as Second Air Force on 18 September 1942. It moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, on 13 June 1943. Second Air Force was reassigned to Army Air Forces in September 1943, and to Continental Air Forces (later, Strategic Air Command), on 16 April 1945. It inactivated on 30 March 1946.

It reactivated on 6 June 1946 at Fort Crook, Nebraska, assigned to Air Defense Commandbefore inactivating again on 1 July 1948.

Reactivated on 1 November 1949 at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, it wa assigned to Strategic Air Command. It inactivated on 16 September 1950 and was organized the same day with no change in station or assignment. It inactivated on 1 January 1975.

Reassigned to Strategic Air Command on 29 August 1991, it reactivated at Beale AFB, California on 1 September 1991. It was relieved from assignment to Strategic Air Command and assigned to Air Combat Command on 1 June 1992 before inactivating on 1 July 1993.

It activated the same day at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, with a change in assignment to Air Education and Training Command.