The 4729th Air Defense Group is a discontinued

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air 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 of the United States Army Signal ...

organization. Its last assignment was with the

Boston Air Defense Sector The Boston Air Defense Sector (BADS) is an inactive United States Air Force Air Defense Command (ADC) organization. Its last assignment was with the ADC 26th Air Division at Hancock Field, New York. History BADS was established in 1956 at Ste ...

Westover Air Force Base Westover may refer to: People * Al Westover (born 1954), American professional basketball player in Australia * Arthur Westover (1864–1935), Canadian sport shooter and 1908 Olympian * Charles Westover (1934–1990), better known as Del Shannon, ...

, Massachusetts, where it was discontinued in 1958. The group was formed to provide a single command and support organization for the two fighter interceptor squadrons of

Air Defense Command Aerospace Defense Command was a major command (military formation), command of the United States Air Force, responsible for continental air defense. It was activated in 1968 and disbanded in 1980. Its predecessor, Air Defense Command, was est ...

, that were tenants at Westover, a

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...

(SAC) base. It was also assigned a maintenance squadron to perform aircraft maintenance. It was discontinued after the 324th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron moved in 1958, leaving only a single fighter

squadron Squadron may refer to: * Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies * Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...

at Westover.

History

The 4729th Air Defense Group was established to provide a

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

for the two

(ADC) Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons (FIS) stationed at

, Massachusetts,Cornett & Johnson, p. 89 a

(SAC) base. SAC's 814th Air Base Group acted as host organization for the base.Mueller, pp. 578, 582–583 The

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

was assigned the 324th FIS and 337th FIS, flying

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

equipped and

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

armed

North American F-86D Sabre The North American F-86D/K/L Sabre (initially known as the YF-95 and widely known informally as the "Sabre Dog",) was an American transonic jet fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was an interceptor ...

aircraftCornett & Johnson, p. 125Cornett & Johnson, p. 127 as its operational components,Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 399Maurer, p.417 to provide air defense of New England. These squadrons were already stationed at Westover and had been assigned to the Boston Air Defense Sector. In August, maintenance for the two fighter

s was combined in the 603rd Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (CAMS), which was activated at Westover.Cornett & Johnson, p.142 The 324th FIS and 337th FIS upgraded to newer model Sabres with

data link A data link is the means of connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving digital information (data communication). It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a transmitter and a recei ...

for interception control through the

Semi-Automatic Ground Environment The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of mainframe computer, large computers and associated computer network, networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image ...

system in the fall of 1957. In the spring of 1958, the 337th FIS converted to

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter is an American single-engine, supersonic air superiority fighter which was extensively deployed as a fighter-bomber during the Cold War. Created as a day fighter by Lockheed as one of the "Century Series" of fi ...

aircraft. The group was discontinued when the 324th FIS departed for Morocco, leaving only a single operational ADC squadron at Westover. The 603rd CAMS was also inactivated, while the 337th FIS was then assigned directly to the

Lineage

* Designated and organized as: 4729th Air Defense Group on 8 July 1957 : Discontinued on 25 June 1958 Assignments * Boston Air Defense Sector, 8 July 1957 – 25 June 1958 Stations * Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, 8 July 1957 – 25 June 1958 Components * 324th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 8 July 1957 – 25 June 1958 * 337th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, 8 July 1957 – 25 June 1958 * 603rd Consolidated Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 8 August 1957 – 8 February 1958

Aircraft

* North American F-86D Sabre 1957 * North American F-86L Sabre 1957–1958 * Lockheed F-104A Starfighter 1958

References

Notes

Bibliography

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