The Ninth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina.
Ninth Air Force was previously a numbered air force activated during the Second World War. For decades, Ninth Air Force supervised tactical fighter units on the U.S. East Coast. From 1983, it became the air force component of United States Central Command. From 1990, units were deployed to the Middle East against Iraq, and from 2001 against threats eminating from Afghanistan. In this role, the organization was known as United States Air Forces Central (USAFCENT).
Until August 2009, Ninth Air Force shared its commander with USAFCENT. In a complicated transfer of lineage, the Second World War-and after heritage of Ninth Air Force was bestowed solely on United States Air Forces Central, and a new Ninth Air Force, which technically had no previous history, was activated on the U.S. East Coast.
This article deals with the current organization, as the lineage of the previous organization currently belongs to USAFCENT.
Famous quotes containing the words ninth, air and/or force:
“The ninth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me
Nine drummers drumming,”
—Unknown. The Twelve Days of Christmas (l. 53–55)
“She [Evelina] is a little angel!... Her face and person answer my most refined ideas of complete beauty.... She has the same gentleness in her manners, the same natural graces in her motions, that I formerly so much admired in her mother. Her character seems truly ingenuous and simple; and at the same time that nature has blessed her with an excellent understanding and great quickness of parts, she has a certain air of inexperience and innocency that is extremely interesting.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“What I am anxious to do is to get the best bill possible with the least amount of friction.... I wish to avoid [splitting our party]. I shall do all in my power to retain the corporation tax as it is now and also force a reduction of the [tariff] schedules. It is only when all other efforts fail that I’ll resort to headlines and force the people into this fight.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)