page_title: 1st Operations Group
section_title: 1st Pursuit Group Commanders
hierarchical_section_title: 1st Operations Group / History / Army Air Corps service / 1st Pursuit Group Commanders
caption_attribution_description: English: Boeing P-12E 32-46, 27th Fighter Squadron, about 1933
context_page_description: The 1st Operations Group is the flying component of the 1st Fighter Wing, assigned to the USAF Air Combat Command. The group is stationed at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia. The 1st Operations Group is the oldest major air combat unit in the United States Air Force, being the successor organization of the 1st Pursuit Group. The 1st Pursuit Group was the first air combat group formed by the Air Service, American Expeditionary Force, on 5 May 1918.
  The Group was first organized at Croix de Metz Aerodrome, near Toul, France, as a result of the United States entry into World War I. As the 1st Pursuit Group it saw combat on the Western Front in France, and during World War II as the 1st Fighter Group combat in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Pilots of the 1st Group are credited by the USAF with destroying 554.33 aircraft and 50 balloons, and 36 pilots are recognized as being aces.
  The pilots of the 1st Group included Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, credited as the top scoring American ace in France during World War I. During World War II, the 1st FG was among the first groups deployed overseas in the summer of 1942.
caption: 27th PS Boeing P-12E at Selfridge Field. The fuselage is olive drab, the wings yellow, and the cowl ring red.
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