8th is always Eighth Aero Squadron oldest active serving in USAF. Organized at Kelly Field after original 1st-7th as 1st in 2nd gp of new units congress approved. Be 100 next May and my combat unit SEA as 8th Tactical Bombardment now 8th Special Ops into Ospreys from HC-130s in the Afgan. Now have 11 in UK for commando use anywhere that side of world. Since WWI France were Yellow Birds until went to black ops now Black Birds. Were the real crew extracting folks in Air Force One and only to ever do that. I ran the 50 anniversary party at Clark AB as Snack Bar Officer with the Sqdn credit card and my Enlisted/Officer softball umpire was Wing CO Chuck Yeager because “I been told you have a good eye!”.

http://www.stripes.com/news/ospreys-to-be-based-in-uk-for-special-ops-missions-1.177564

In 1921 the unneeded Air Service fell to an officer and a sgt who both happened to be from the 8th. Sound about familiar? Progressive peacenik W Wilson (he kept us out of war) POTUS ’13-’21. 8

http://8thattacksqdnassoc.tripod.com/Vietnam.html

Always the coolest aircraft description of a B-57 stone age, twin jet dive bomber.

“The pilot was responsible for the 250 knot dive run and bomb release, but the back seat navigator was a second pair of eyes, spotter, observer, navigator and radio operator. On the pullout, the aircraft and crew were under a four “g” stress without the use of special equipment. Several crews were lost in midair collisions, target fixation and ground fire during the night missions. The most sophisticated piece of equipment in the aircraft was the rheostat which lighted the manually operated bomb sight.”

Means with carried survival gear, parachute and seat pack ( raft and rest) weight suddenly over 800 pounds and pull out was Grunt N Groan maneuver until level off at 10K again up from 2K release, dirt commin up real fast! Usually about 5 to 10 times in small individual drops. Went on seemed forever in hour on station over night time Ho Chi trail. Was a gradual losing game all around. Chewed us up one by one. 8

Casualties (1964-1968): Flying the B-57 was a risky business. Out of the 94 B-57s that were assigned to the Southeast Asia theatre, 51 were lost in combat (including 15 destroyed on the ground). By Jul 69 only 8 aircraft were left in the 8th TBS.