Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Eighth Air Force is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier Parish, Louisiana. It operates under Air Force Global Strike Command and supports U.S. Strategic Command as Task Force 204.
The Eighth Air Force was established as VIII Bomber Command on the 19th of January 1942 and activated at Langley Field, Virginia, on the 1st of February 1942. It was redesignated the Eighth Air Force on the 22nd of February 1944.
The Eighth Air Force suffered more than 47,000 casualties in World War II, including more than 26,000 dead. That total accounted for half of all U.S. Army Air Forces casualties in the war.
The Eighth Air Force flies the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the Rockwell B-1 Lancer supersonic bomber, and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress heavy bomber. Its current fleet includes 76 B-52s, 20 B-2s, and 62 B-1s.
Major General Jimmy Doolittle commanded the Eighth Air Force during Big Week in February 1944. He had taken command from Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker on the 6th of January 1944.
In the 1991 Gulf War, the Eighth Air Force's 2d Bomb Wing launched conventional air-launched cruise missiles from B-52s based at Barksdale against Iraqi targets. Eighth Air Force units also attacked Iraq's Republican Guard forces and provided air refueling and reconnaissance.