Former 8th AF Vice Commander Honors WWII 303rd Bomb Group (Heavy)

  • Published
  • By Peter G. Park, Jr., Commander's Action Group
  • JIOCEUR Analytic Center
Royal Air Force Molesworth, United Kingdom --  From October 1942 until victory in Europe in May 1945 the 303rd Bomb Group (Heavy), part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force fought through dangerous skies with its B-17 "Flying Fortresses" to attack enemy targets.  The results of the 364 missions of the 303rd along with other 8th Air Force B-17 and B-24 bomber units flying from England hastened the defeat of Nazi Germany.

It was a very different 8th U.S. Air Force that then Brig. Gen. John C. Koziol served fifty-five years later as Vice Commander from December 2000 - August 2002. The modern aircraft and nuclear capabilities of today's 8th AF are beyond anything imaginable during the struggle against Nazi Germany in Europe during the war. 

Visiting U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, and NATO units at Royal Air Force Molesworth on February 14, 2011, now Lt. Gen. Koziol paused from his busy agenda to pay tribute to the 8,960 men who served in the Group during the war, and for 841 of which Molesworth - then known as Station 107 -- was the last place that they trod the earth.

The General reviewed RAF Molesworth units in his current roles as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence) for Joint and Coalition Warfighter Support; and as the Director of the Department of Defense Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Task Force, at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.