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8th Air Force observes 74th anniversary

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Benjamin Raughton
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  An Air Force command, once led by generals Ira Eaker and Jimmy Doolittle, has participated in combat operations from World War II to Operation Enduring Freedom.

On Jan. 29, 8th Air Force here observed its 74th birthday, featuring a cake-cutting with the 8th Air Force commander, Maj. Gen. Richard Clark, and the youngest troop to join the team, Airman 1st Class Rabekka Orozco, 608th Air Operations Center intelligence analyst.

"Ira Eaker, Jimmy Doolittle, Paul Tibbets, all of those giants; people who were part of this command for decades, made the sacrifices, and had the concepts, the audacity and the boldness to make this command what it is," Clark said.

"We had hundreds of thousands of Airmen in World War II participate, whether they were aviators, maintainers, loaders, medics or cooks. All of them took the fight to the heart of Nazi Germany and took the fight to the Pacific."

"Those are the ones whose shoulders we stand on, but mostly it was the 26,000 who gave their lives over the skies of Europe to make sure we have the freedoms we enjoy every day making sure this command did the job it needed to do to defend our national security and the constitution we've all sworn to defend."