page_title: 12th Operations Group
section_title: Fighter escort operations
hierarchical_section_title: 12th Operations Group / History / Fighter escort operations
caption_attribution_description: English: Republic F-84E-1-RE Thunderjet 49-2066. Aircraft was flown to RAF Manston, England in July 1951 by the 12th Fighter-Escort Wing. Was later flown by the 123d Fighter-Bomber Group and lastly 406th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Manston. Was then retired and sent to MASDC in Nov 1958
context_page_description: The 12th Operations Group is the flying component of the 12th Flying Training Wing of United States Air Force's Air Education and Training Command. The group headquarters is located at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. The unit's main missions include aircraft instructor pilot training in Beechcraft T-6 Texan II, Northrop T-38C Talon and Raytheon T-1 Jayhawk aircraft, Air Force and Navy undergraduate combat systems officer training and fighter fundamentals student pilot instructor training in the Northrop AT-38C.
  The group was first activated in January 1941 as the 12th Bombardment Group. After training and flying antisubmarine patrols off the Pacific Coast, moved to Egypt in July 1942. In the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, it took part in the Western Desert campaign and Italian campaign, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation. In 1944, it moved to the China Burma India Theater and participated in the Burma campaign before the war's end. The unit returned to the United States in January 1946 and was inactivated on arriving at the Port of Embarkation.
  The group was briefly active in 1947 to 1948, but was not manned or equipped due to budgetary restrictions.
context_section_description: The 12th Fighter-Escort Group was activated at Turner Air Force Base, Georgia on 1 November 1950 as the flying element of the 12th Fighter-Escort Wing under the wing base organization system.  The 559th, 560th and 561st Fighter-Escort Squadrons were assigned to the group. The group's mission was to fly fighter escort for Strategic Air Command strategic bombers.
  As the group was organizing, the 27th Fighter-Escort Wing at Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas deployed to Japan. The 12th Group moved to Bergstrom in December, and was filled out by personnel from the 27th that had not deployed and personnel that had been transferred from the 31st Fighter-Escort Group at Turner.  On 12 December the group received its first Republic F-84E Thunderjets. These aircraft, however, were rejected as Republic Aviation had equipped them with an engine that was incapable of supporting the extended bomber escort missions projected by SAC.
  Strategic Air Command (SAC)'s mobilization for the Korean War highlighted that SAC wing commanders focused too much on running the base organization and were not spending enough time on overseeing combat preparations.  To allow wing commanders the ability to focus on combat operations, the air base group commander became responsible for managing the base housekeeping functions. Under the plan finalized in June 1952, the wing commander focused primarily on the combat units and the maintenance necessary to support combat aircraft by having the combat and maintenance squadrons report directly to the wing and eliminating the intermediate group structures. In February 1951, the group's three squadrons were attached to the wing and the group was reduced to paper status. When the reorganization was finalized, the group was inactivated and the squadrons reassigned.
caption: Group F-84 Thunderjets[note 8]
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP ojp7700", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.8.6", "Image DateTime": "2013:12:22 16:06:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "242", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1080", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5112", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:11:01 11:20:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2851", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1509", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "\u0002\u0002\u0002\u0002", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[3, 0, 0, 0]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "938", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}