Our Roots

At JAKs, we draw our traditions from two great Air Force legacies, those of the 26th Space Aggressor Squadron (26 SAS) and the 310th Bombardment Group (today, the 310th Space Wing) in which our founders proudly served. The 26 SAS prepares U.S. and Allied warfighters for combat by replicating adversary space threats in major training exercises (such as RED FLAG). The red star, the symbol of the fallen Soviet Union is, today, the unifying emblem of the Air Force Aggressor program…and of JAKs Brewing. Long before she was an Aggressor squadron, though, she served in WWI as the 26th Pursuit Squadron and in WWII as the 26thBombardment Squadron. She was nearly destroyed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941, and the 26th spent the rest of the war driving the Japanese back to their home islands.

America’s official response to the attack at Pearl Harbor came on 18 April, 1942, when Jimmy Doolittle led sixteen B-25B Mitchell bombers in a daring daylight raid against the Japanese capital city of Tokyo. Most have heard the tale of the Doolittle Raiders, but few know what happened next, as Jimmy Doolittle hand-picked a dozen of his Raiders to accompany him to North Africa to take the fight to Rommel’s Afrika Korps…and to found the 310th Bombardment Group.

For three years, the 310th, a B-25 Mitchell outfit, and her squadrons – all led by Doolittle Raiders – fought her way across North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, Corsica and, finally, to Italy. By war’s end, the 310th had flown more combat missions than any other medium bomb group in the European Theater.

Today, the 310th is the Air Force’s second largest and, by far, most diverse space wing, operating twelve distinct space systems, including the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite constellations. From 2003 to 2007, the 26 SAS served under the 310th, and we honor this shared legacy of valor at JAKs every day.