Osan and Kunsan Air Bases are home to the US Air Force’s fighter squadrons in South Korea and include the most forward, permanently deployed fighter squadron in the service. Lt Col ‘Cricket’ Renner, USAF (ret’d), visited these units, where the motto “We fight tonight!” is still on all airmen’s minds.
USAF in Korea
“Because we always know we have to be ready to ‘fight tonight’, it really gives us something to focus on and gives us drive as a squadron to really be as tactically prepared as we possibly can” Lt ‘Alamo’ Morical
Since 1953 the conflict on the Korean peninsula has officially been under a ceasefire agreement, as no peace treaty was ever signed after the three-year war between North and South. Although most of the past 65 years have been relatively quiet, there have been a few notable exceptions. Incidents in the past decade include North Korea’s missile tests towards the Sea of Japan, the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan with the death of 46 sailors in 2010 and, in the same year, the North Korean artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island, which killed several South Koreans.
Back in the 1980s, North Korea began trying to develop nuclear weapons. Pyongyang announced its first nuclea…