[7] On 11 December 1941, four days after the Pearl Harbor attack, 2d Air Force was placed under Western Defense Command.

In late January 1942, elements of the B-25 Mitchell-equipped 17th Bombardment Group at Pendleton Field, Oregon were reassigned to Columbia Army Air Base, South Carolina ostensibly to fly antisubmarine patrols off the southeast coast of the United States, but in actuality came to prepare for the Doolittle Raid against Japan.

As the Second Air Force it became predominantly the training organization of B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator heavy bombardment groups.

A football team made up of Second Air Force personnel defeated Hardin–Simmons University in the 1943 Sun Bowl.

However SAC was having enough difficulties keeping its front-line active duty bomb units in the air to maintain even minimal pilot proficiency in the late 1940s.

During the Cold War, Second Air Force aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)s stood nuclear alert, providing a deterrence against an attack on the United States by the Soviet Union.

After completing BMT, airmen begin technical training in their career field specialties, primarily at five installations: Goodfellow, Lackland, and Sheppard Air Force bases in Texas; Keesler AFB, Mississippi; and Vandenberg AFB, California.

Each base is responsible for a specific portion of formal technical training airmen require to accomplish the Air Force mission.

Instructors conduct technical training in specialties such as enlisted aviator, aircraft maintenance, civil engineering, medical services, computer systems, security forces, air traffic control, personnel, intelligence, fire fighting, and space and missile operations.

Commissioned officers attend technical training courses for similar career fields at the same locations.

These Airmen are assigned to perform traditional US Army duties in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.

An Expeditionary Mission Support Group was formed to provide command and control of these JET Airmen as they are trained at US Army Power Projection Platforms across the US prior to deploying to their assigned Area of Responsibility (AOR).

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency