12th Air Division


The 12th Air Division an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the Eighth Air Force, based at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. It was inactivated on 31 July 1990.

History

The division was established as the 12th Pursuit Wing in the Panama Canal Zone on 20 November 1940. The organization commanded pursuit groups and squadrons for Sixth Air Force until 6 March 1942.
It was reassigned to Eighth Air Force in England during November 1942 as a bombardment wing, but never made operational. All personnel and equipment were withdrawn in January 1943, and the organization did not serve in combat.
Reactivated in 1951, the 12th Air Division was an intermediate command echelon of Strategic Air Command. It conducted training for worldwide bombardment operations. From 1963–1984 and 1988–1990. It maintained an intercontinental ballistic missile capability, conducted staff assistance visits, and monitored programs such as retention, domestic actions, and medical capabilities of its subordinate units.
Its mission was to assure unit Emergency War Order capability and combat crew training conducted at Castle and Dyess Air Force Bases, continually evaluate qualification training, direct correction or improvement when appropriate, and represent training concerns to higher headquarters.
It was inactivated in 1990 as part of the military drawdown of the USAF after the end of the Cold War.

Lineage

Wings
Groups
Or, a globe azure grid lined of the first between in dexter an airplane palewise ascending argent, exhaust gules and in sinister a missile palewise of the like, overall a gauntlet of the third, grasping an olive branch vert and a lightning flash of the fourth bend sinisterwise and two lightning flashes of the last bendwise, on a chief of the second per chevron inverted seme of mullets argent; all within a diminished bordure of argent.