80th Flying Training Wing The 80th Flying Training Wing ( 80 FTW ) is a wing of the United States Air Force based out of Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls , Texas . Mission . The 80th FTW mission is to provide combat airpower by producing top quality fighter pilots for the NATO alliance . The 80th FTW is home of the Euro - NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training ( ENJJPT ) Program . The ENJJPT , established in the spirit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) , is the world ' s only multi - nationally manned and managed flying training program chartered to produce combat pilots for NATO . Components . 80th Operations Group ( 80 OG ) History . Components . Groups Squadrons Operations in World War II . The 80th Pursuit Group ( Interceptor ) was constituted on 13 January 1942 and activated on February 1942 . It was redesignated as the 80th Fighter Group in May 1942 . During World War II , the group was the first USAAF unit to be stationed in Burma after the Allied retreat in 1942 . During its two years in combat , this group , which called itself the Burma Banshees , kept the supply lines open to China while clearing the way for Merrill ' s Marauders to sweep northern Burma clean of the Japanese . The 80th trained for combat and served as part of the defense force for the northeastern United States from , 1942 – 1943 . It ' s flying squadrons were the 88th , 89th , and 90th Pursuit ( later Fighter ) Squadrons . It first trained with the P - 47 Thunderbolt and later in the Curtis P - 40 . The 80th sailed for India , via Brazil , the Cape of Good Hope , and Ceylon , in May 1943 , commencing combat operations in the China - Burma - India theater in September 1943 . The group supported Allied ground forces during the battle for northern Burma and the push southward to Rangoon , bombing and strafing troop concentrations , supply dumps , lines of communication , artillery positions , and other objectives . The 80th was assigned the defense of the Indian terminus of the Hump route , which it carried out by striking Japanese airfields and patrolling Allied air bases to safeguard them from attack . The 80th received a Distinguished Unit Citation for intercepting a formation of Japanese aircraft , preventing the destruction of a large oil refinery in Assam , India , on 27 March 1944 . Though its primary mission in Burma was the protection of the " Hump " cargo route , the group also played an important role in reopening the Ledo / Burma Road . Using modified , so - called " B - 40 " fighter bombers ( the Curtiss P - 40 fitted with a 1 , 000 pound bomb ) , the 80th FG attacked Japanese - held bridges , sometimes demolishing their target with a single bomb . By the end of the war , the group had destroyed more than 200 bridges and killed scores of bridge repair crews . Air - to - air and air - to - ground sweeps by the group ' s pilots claimed 80 enemy planes destroyed in the air or on the ground . The 80th Fighter Group was withdrawn from combat in May 1945 . USAF Training Wing . Since its reactivation , the wing has provided undergraduate pilot training , initially for USAF , German Air Force , and South Vietnamese Air Force students . Although South Vietnamese Air Force pilot training ceased in September 1974 , students from other nations continued to train under the security assistance program through April 1980 . It also provided USAF rotary - wing pilots ' conversion training to fixed - wing aircraft from June 1977 – November 1981 . The wing has conducted pilot training and pilot instructor training under the Euro - NATO Joint Pilot Training Program , since October 1981 , with participating nations contributing staff and financial support . In January 1994 , the 80th began training Euro - NATO pilots in fighter fundamentals , using AT - 38 aircraft .