12th Fighter-Escort Group

12th Operations Group
Emblem of the 12th Operations Group
Active	1941–1946; 1947–1948; 1950–1952; 1991–present
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Training
Part of	12th Flying Training Wing
Garrison/HQ	Randolph Air Force Base
Nickname(s)	"Earthquakers"

The 12th Operations Group (12 OG) is the flying component of the 12th Flying Training Wing, assigned to the United States Air Force Air Education and Training Command. The group is stationed at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas.

The 12th Operations Group is primarily responsible for conducting joint and allied pilot instructor training as well as Air Force and Navy undergraduate combat systems officer training at Randolph AFB.

The unit's main missions include T-6, T-38C and T-1 aircraft instructor pilot training, combat systems officer training and fighter fundamentals student pilot instructor training in the AT-38C.

The group contains seven squadrons (Tail Code: RA):

The 12th Bombardment Group (Light) was activated on 15 January 1941 and Prior to the United States’ entry into World War II the group trained with Douglas B-18 Bolo, B-23 Dragon, and Boeing Stearman aircraft at McChord Field, Washington. They were the only Air Corps combat unit on the Pacific Coast north of the San Francisco Bay area after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and they immediately began flying anti-submarine patrols and watching for signs of an invasion

In February 1942, the group was redesignated the 12th Bombardment Group (Medium) and moved to Esler Field, Louisiana, where it trained with B-25s for duty overseas. In June 1942, while in the United States for a conference with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill received word that the British Eighth Army had been badly defeated in a tank battle with Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps near Tobruk, Libya, and was in full retreat back toward the Egyptian delta area. He immediately made an urgent plea for military aid to help stop Rommel from over-running Egypt and the Arabian oil fields.