[1][2] The Eagles were born in the 1970s during the outbreak of hostilities in Mindanao when government forces and secessionist were engaged in a full-scale war, where the latter was strong in terms of personnel and firepower.

Confronted by this problem, the military hastily laid down the framework for a tactical unit that would accomplish the necessary air support mission.

During the late 70's, the eagles were participating in large scale joint operations against fortified MNLF strongholds in Zamboanga del Norte.

By the mid-80's, due to dwindling logistics support to the AT-28Ds, the 17th and 25th Attack Squadron were dissolved and fused with the eagles to cope up with the austerity measure being undertaken by the armed forces.

Aside from performing air strike mission in support of ground forces, the aircraft was fitted to provide cloud seeding capability in order to help soften the impact of the El Niño phenomena.