page_title: 8th Special Operations Squadron
section_title: A-37 Counter-Insurgency Operations
hierarchical_section_title: 8th Special Operations Squadron / History / Vietnam War / A-37 Counter-Insurgency Operations
caption_attribution_description: English: A-37B of the 8th Special Operations Squadron - Phan Rang Air Base, South Vietnam.
context_page_description: The 8th Special Operations Squadron is a squadron of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to the 1st Special Operations Wing, Air Force Special Operations Command, stationed at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The squadron is equipped with the Bell Boeing CV-22 Osprey in support of special operations.
  The 8th is one of the oldest units in the United States Air Force, being organized as the 8th Aero Squadron on 21 June 1917 at Camp Kelly, Texas. The squadron deployed to France and fought on the Western Front during World War I, equipped with United States-built Dayton-Wright DH-4, as reconnaissance aircraft.
  During World War II, the squadron fought in the Southwest Pacific Area with Fifth Air Force as an attack and later North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber squadron. During the Cold War, it fought in the Korean War with Douglas B-26 Invader medium bombers and Vietnam War as a Martin B-57 Canberra medium bomber and later as an air commando squadron with Cessna A-37 Dragonfly counter-insurgency aircraft.
context_section_description: The 8th moved to Bien Hoa Air Base, where it redesignated as the 8th Attack Squadron and absorbed the Cessna A-37B Dragonflya of the 310th and 311th Attack Squadrons and given a counter-insurgency (COIN) mission.
  The 8th flew round-the-clock missions on both preplanned airstrikes and immediate infantry requests. Whenever a forward air controller observed signs of enemy activity, 8th pilots were ready to respond with rockets, bombs and machine guns. On 30 September 1970, the 8th Attack Squadron was redesignated the 8th Special Operations Squadron and transferred to the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing. The 8th assumed the tail code "EK".
  By 1971, the Vietnamization of the war was in full swing, and the A-37s of the squadron began to be transferred to the Republic of Vietnam Air Force. On 1 October 1972, the 8th Special Operations Squadron was the last United States Air Force combat squadron to withdraw from South Vietnam.
  The squadron moved, without personnel or equipment, to the 405th Fighter Wing at Clark Air Base. On 1 July 1973, the unit was redesignated as the 8th Fighter Squadron but remained an unmanned and unequipped unit. The reason it was not simply inactivated is that the unit was the second oldest squadron in the Air Force was historically significant. It remained assigned without personnel or aircraft until March 1974.
caption: A-37B of the 8th Special Operations Squadron – Phan Rang AB, South Vietnam – 1970.
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