The USAF Special Operations School is the product of a 50-year evolutionary process. The process began in March 1961 when President John F. Kennedy, responding to Chairman Nikita S. Khruschev's clarion call for "wars of national liberation," cited the need for countering "subversion and guerilla warfare" that were the heart of Communist insurgency.  As a result, the Air Force increased the emphasis given to special air warfare training.  

The United States Air Force Special Air Warfare School (USAFSAWS) was originally a Directorate of the 4410th Combat Crew Training Wing at Hurlburt Field.  In 1968, the school was re-designated USAFSOS.  In June 1987, USAFSOS, as an organizational element of the 23rd Air Force, was assigned to the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), headquartered at MacDill AFB, FL.  In May 1990, the school became a direct reporting unit of the newly established Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).  In October 2008, with the stand-up of the Air Force Special Operations Training Center, USAFSOS was placed under that unit, which was later reorganized on 11 February 2013 and renamed the Air Force Special Operations Air Warfare Center. Most recently, USAFSOS is aligned to the 492nd Special Operations Wing.  During its formative years, the school's main thrust was the preparation of Air Force personnel for duty in Southeast Asia.  Subsequently, USAFSOS has grown from teaching a single course the first year, to conducting 165 iterations of 20 different formal courses and 33 customized,  Mobile Education Events (MEEs) in AY18. USAFSOS currently provides (SOF) indoctrination, as well as political, military, and cultural studies supporting SOF operations in the various combatant theaters. The school also provides language training, and specialized instructions on irregular warfare principles; building partner nation aviation capacity; aviation foreign internal defense; dynamics of international terrorism; and command, control and integration of Air Force Special Operation Forces (AFSOF) assets and AFSOF leadership development.