First Air Force

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First Air Force is a Numbered Air Force in Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City, Florida. It is an intermediate echelon responsible for air defense units in the contiguous United States (CONUS). The First Air Force also serves as the Air Force component of the United States Northern Command, and Air Forces Northern, or AFNORTH, the Air Force war fighting headquarters supporting United States Northern Command. First Air Force also serves as the CONUS geographical component of the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command.

First Air Force is unique in both its mission and composition. With the transfer of responsibility for continental air defense from the active duty component of the Air Force to the Air National Guard, First Air Force became the first numbered air force to be made up primarily of citizen airmen.

Units aligned under AFNORTH include the Northeast Air Defense Sector, Southeast Air Defense Sector, Western Air Defense Sector, 601st Air Operations Group and the 702d Computer Systems Squadron. Additionally, First Air Force provides operational control of alert air defense fighter units.

One of the original four numbered air forces formed in the United States in 1940, the First Air Force provided air defense and conducted combat training for personnel of newly formed units. Following World War II this air force was involved in air defense and reserve training and concentrated entirely upon air defense in the latter 1960s and again after 1985.

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Commands During World War II

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