The 1st Fighter Squadron is an inactive unit of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

. It was most recently based at

Tyndall Air Force Base Tyndall Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located east of Panama City, Florida. The base was named in honor of World War I pilot 1st Lt. Frank Benjamin Tyndall. The base operating unit and host wing is the 325th Fighter Wing (325 ...

, Florida, where it operated

McDonnell Douglas F-15C Eagle The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter aircraft designed by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' ...

aircraft conducting advanced fighter training.

Mission

The 1 FS provided fully qualified F-15 Eagle pilots for worldwide assignment by conducting formal ground, simulator, and flight training.

History

The 1st flew

P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bom ...

aircraft during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. While based on Ie Shima the 1 FS launched Thunderbolts against the Japanese, amassing almost 1,200

combat air patrol Combat air patrol (CAP) is a type of flying mission for fighter aircraft. A combat air patrol is an aircraft patrol provided over an objective area, over the force protected, over the critical area of a combat zone, or over an air defense area, ...

, bombing,

strafing Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such ...

, and escort missions. During this era, the squadron emblem was "

Miss Fury Miss Fury is a fictional superheroine from the Golden Age of Comics. She first appeared as ''The Black Fury'' on April 6, 1941, a Sunday comic strip distributed by the Bell Syndicate, and created by artist June Tarpé Mills (writing as Tarpé M ...

," a 1940s-era comic strip superheroine. The 1 FS was inactivated on 15 October 1946, after the war had ended. The 1 FS was activated as part of the 413th Fighter-Day Wing on 11 November 1954. The squadron trained pilots in the

F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

from 1954 to 1956 and the F-100 Super Sabre from 1956 to 1959. The 1st operated out of

George Air Force Base George Air Force Base was a United States Air Force base located within the city limits, 8 miles northwest, of central Victorville, California, about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles, California. Established by the United States Army Air C ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, until it was again inactivated on 15 March 1959, with Lieutenant Colonel Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager as commander. The squadron was reactivated 1 January 1984, as part of the 325th Tactical Training Wing, at

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, to train pilots in the F-15 Eagle. On 17 September 1991, the operations and maintenance functions of the 1st joined to form a combined squadron. The squadron continued to train F-15 pilots for the combat air forces and received several honors, such as earning the Air Force Maintenance Effectiveness Award for 1998,

Nineteenth Air Force The Nineteenth Air Force (19 AF) is an active Numbered Air Force of the United States Air Force. During the Cold War it was a component of Tactical Air Command, with a mission of command and control over deployed USAF forces in support of Unit ...

Top Operations Squadron of the Year for 1998, and 325th Fighter Wing Fighter Squadron of the Year for 1995, 1997, and 1998. Other notable accomplishments include receiving the U. S. Air Force Air Flight Safety of the Year award for 2002, as well as recognition for best intelligence mission report. Also, members received by-name recognition during the 2003 Headquarters

Air Education and Training Command Air Education and Training Command (AETC) is one of the nine List of major commands of the United States Air Force, Major Commands (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force (USAF), reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force. It was establis ...

Operational Readiness Inspection. The 1st Fighter Squadron was inactivated on 15 December 2006.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 1st Fighter Squadron, Single Engine on 5 October 1944 : Activated on 15 October 1944 : Inactivated on 15 October 1946 * Redesignated 1st Fighter-Day Squadron on 26 August 1954 : Activated on 11 November 1954 * Redesignated 1st Tactical Fighter Squadron on 1 July 1958 : Inactivated on 15 March 1959 * Redesignated 1st Tactical Fighter Training Squadron on 14 October 1983 : Activated on 1 January 1984 * Redesignated 1st Fighter Squadron on 1 November 1991 : Inactivated on 15 December 2006

Assignments

* 413th Fighter Group, 5 October 1944 – 15 October 1956 * 413th Fighter-Day Group, 11 November 1954 * 413th Fighter-Day Wing (later 413th Tactical Fighter Wing), 8 October 1957 – 15 March 1959 (attached to

Sixteenth Air Force The Sixteenth Air Force (Air Forces Cyber) (16 AF) is a United States Air Force (USAF) organization responsible for information warfare, which encompasses intelligence gathering and analysis, surveillance, reconnaissance, cyber warfare and ele ...

, 27 June – c. 12 November 1958) * 325th Tactical Training Wing, 1 January 1984 * 325th Operations Group, 1 September 1991 – 15 December 2006

Stations

Seymour Johnson Field Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Goldsboro, North Carolina. The base is named for U.S. Navy Lt. Seymour A. Johnson, a test pilot from Goldsboro who died in an airplane crash near Norbeck, Maryland, ...

, North Carolina, 15 October 1944 * Bluethenthal Field, North Carolina, 9 November 1944 – 7 April 1945 *

Ie Shima Airfield is a training facility, managed by the United States Marine Corps and a former World War II airfield complex on Ie Shima, an island located off the northwest coast of Okinawa Island in the East China Sea. The airfield as such was inactivated ...

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, 19 May 1945 *

Kadena Air Base (IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a highly strategic United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is often referred to as the "Keystone of the Pacific" because of its highl ...

, Okinawa, c. 17 November 1945 *

Yontan Airfield Yontan Airfield (also known as Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield) is a former military airfield located near Yomitan Village on the west coast of Okinawa. It was closed in July 1996 and turned over to the Japanese government in December 2006. Today it i ...

, Okinawa, 29 January 1946 – 15 October 1946 *

, California, 11 November 1954 – 15 March 1959 (deployed at

Morón Air Base Morón Air Base is located at in southern Spain, approximately southeast of the city of Seville. The base gets its name from the nearby town of Morón de la Frontera while is located inside Arahal municipality territory. Currently the bas ...

, Spain (27 June – c. 12 November 1958) *

, Florida, 1 January 1984 – 15 December 2006

Aircraft

(1944–1946) *

(1954–1956) * F-100 Super Sabre (1956–1959) * F-15 Eagle (1984–2006)

References

; Notes ; Citations

Bibliography

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