The Eight Ballers: Eyes of the Fifth Air ForceBeginning operations in April 1942 with a shoestring flight of four Lockheed F 4 Lightnings (the photo recon version of the famed P 38), the 8th Photo Squadron gave the American Army Air Forces its only aerial reconnaissance coverage of the Southwest Pacific during the first part of the war. From the first days over New Guinea until the final sweeps over Japan the squadron struggled with the world's most treacherous weather and faulty equipment as