Shaw Air Force Base is the home of the 9th Air Force Headquarters and the 20th Fighter Wing, which is the largest combat F-16 fighting wing.
Shaw Air Force Base was named after U.S. pilot, 1st Lt. Ervin David Shaw. While returning from a reconnaissance mission in France during World War One, Lt. Shaw was attacked by three enemy fighter planes. He shot one of them down before being shot down himself.
Shaw Air Force Base was activated as Shaw Field in August 1941, the site of the Army Air Corps Basic Flying School. Shaw Field was actively flying training classes two months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the first class of trainees finished Phase II training only two months after the attack. More than 8,600 pilots graduated from Shaw training over the course of the war.
Shaw became an Air Force Base with the separation of Army and Air Force in 1947. In the 1950s, Shaw AFB became home of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing.
In 1991, the 363rd Tactical Fighter Wing was one of the first units dispatched to Operation Desert Shield, the operation to check the expected advance of Iraq into Saudi Arabia, following the invasion of Kuwait.
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