Nevertheless, by early 1986, the drive to reform DOD in Congress was moving ahead full speed, and in May, a basic package of legislation was voted on and passed. Called Goldwater-Nichols after its sponsors in the Senate and House respectively, it created the new regional Combatant Command structure the nation has used over the last three decades. In 1987, a follow-up amendment specifically for SOF was passed, today known as Nunn-Cohen. This specifically created U.S. Special Operations Command and its supporting DOD infrastructure, as well as the attendant component commands from each of the services we know today.

One of the few Air Force aircraft equipped at the time with the new GPS navigation system, Comer’s Pave Lows led eight Army AH-64 Apache gunships from the 101st Airborne Division (under the command of Lt. Col. Richard Cody) over the Iraqi border to destroy a pair of critical enemy radar sites (Objectives Nebraska and Oklahoma).

The various service component commands were stood up over the next few years, with the 23rd Air Force moving to Hurlburt Field in August 1987, and the non-SOF elements being divested in August 1989. It would take another year for AFSOC to stand up officially, the last of the three original SOCOM service component commands to do so. That finally occurred on May 22, 1990.

However, breaking world events rarely consult officials in the Pentagon on scheduling, and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s was no exception. Prior to becoming AFSOC in 1990, 23rd Air Force was engaged in a pair of shooting conflicts in the Persian Gulf (Operations Ernest Will and Prime Chance – 1987/1988) and Panama (Operation Just Cause – 1989/1990). Panama in particular allowed the Air Force SOF community to fully deploy and operate for the first time since Vietnam. The results were impressive. Special Tactics personnel on the ground called in a variety of supporting fire missions, including very accurate gunfire from AC-130s. In many ways, Panama was a final exam for the 23rd Air Force on the last steps of its journey to become AFSOC.

Desert Shield/Desert Storm

When Iraq invaded Kuwait in early August 1990, there was no guarantee that AFSOC and the rest of SOCOM were going to be included in the forces being sent to the Persian Gulf (Operation Desert Shield). U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA, openly disliked the SOF community. He called them “Snake Eaters,” and expressed the opinion that he could not trust them to “not start a war on their own.” Notwithstanding this, Schwarzkopf eventually allowed SOCOM forces into the CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR) and began to employ them.

Ironically, and on the personal orders of Schwarzkopf, it was 20th Special Operations Squadron (SOS) MH-53J Pave Low SOF helicopters led by then-Lt. Col. Richard Comer that helped fire the opening shots of what became Operation Desert Storm. One of the few Air Force aircraft equipped at the time with the new GPS navigation system, Comer’s Pave Lows led eight Army AH-64 Apache gunships from the 101st Airborne Division (under the command of Lt. Col. Richard Cody) over the Iraqi border to destroy a pair of critical enemy radar sites (Objectives Nebraska and Oklahoma). Just a few days later, on Jan. 21, 1991, an MH-53 crew managed the first and only “save” of a downed allied airman in enemy territory when they picked up Navy Lt. Devon Jones, an F-14 “back seater” shot down by an enemy surface-to-air missile.

And perhaps most impressively, MC-130 tanker transports conducted some of the most impressive and dangerous in-flight refueling missions in history for the helicopters of the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), along with the MH-53s and HH-60s of AFSOC.

Other AFSOC units had their own successes in the weeks ahead, with Special Tactics personnel on the ground calling in precision airstrikes and artillery, along with a variety of other tasks being worked by the command’s various C-130 Hercules-based airframes. MC-130s dropped the biggest bombs of the war, the massive BLU-82 “Daisy Cutters” on enemy positions, along with conducting psychological warfare leaflet drops and broadcasts. And the ubiquitous AC-130s continued their long-standing tradition of delivering the most precise and devastating gunfire available onto enemy targets. Sadly, however, one of the big gunships was lost during the Battle of Khafji. Spirit 03 was shot down by enemy fire, resulting in 14 aircrew members killed, the worst single-day casualty count ever in the history of AFSOC. Despite the loss of Spirit 03, AFSOC crews flew their missions throughout Desert Storm, learning important lessons and developing tactics, techniques, and procedures that would serve them well in the next 25 years.