[3] During the battle, the TAF was commanded by Major General Francis P. Mulcahy until ill-health forced him to be relieved by MajGen Louis E.

[8] 2nd MAW was chosen to lead the TAF because it had recent combat experience from Peleliu and more importantly it was available in Hawaii as planning for the invasion began to ramp up.

[8] Expecting a very large number of kamikaze attacks, MajGen Mulcahy selected his Chief of Staff, Brigadier General William J. Wallace, to serve as the head of TAF's most important task unit, the Air Defense Command.

[10] BGen Wallace was a seasoned veteran who had previous combat experience as a Marine Air Group commander during the Guadalcanal Campaign.

[17] On April 16, MAG-43 established its full ADCC in a farmer's house about a half mile southeast of Yontan Airfield in the village of Yomitan.

[25] Flying in from the escort carriers USS Sitkoh Bay and the USS Breton (CVE-23), the group was able to immediately put 80 of 109 F4U Corsairs into the fight and maintained a combat air patrol from 1750 until dark to aid in the fight against the kamikaze attacks that were devastating the American fleet.

[27] On April 14, responsibility for providing CAP aircraft for Okinawa was transferred from the Navy's Task Force 58 to the TAF.

[28] That same day TAF was also tasked with providing an additional two plane CAP's for three of the Navy's radar picket stations.

On May 24, the Japanese mounted Operation Gi-gou: a company of Giretsu Kuteitai commandos were airlifted in a suicide attack on Yomitan.

[32] The original plan for the Battle of Okinawa had called for a significant portion of assigned aviation assets to conduct close air support (CAS).

[34] A newly established command and control agency was utilized to coordinate and direct close air support missions during the battle.

[8][36] It was at this point that the headquarters designed for the Battle of Okinawa was no longer needed and the unit was disbanded on July 13, 1945.

During its existence TAF squadrons flew a total of 38,192 sorties and claimed shooting down 625 enemy aircraft as well as engaging Japanese shipping and providing close air support.