The 321st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

unit. Its last assignment was with the

316th Air Division The 316th Airlift Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the United States Air Forces in Europe, assigned to Seventeenth Air Force, being stationed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It was inacti ...

, stationed at

Paine Air Force Base Seattle Paine Field International Airport — also known as Paine Field and Snohomish County Airport — is a commercial and general aviation airport serving the Seattle metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located in unin ...

, Washington, where it was inactivated on 8 March 1960.

History

World War II

The 321st Fighter Squadron was activated at

Mitchel Field Mitchell may refer to: People and fictional characters *Mitchell (surname), including lists of both people and fictional characters *Mitchell (given name), lists of people and fictional characters Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Ca ...

, New York in August 1942 as one of the original squadrons of the

326th Fighter Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

and moved the next month to Bradley Field, Connecticut and equipped with

Republic 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-bombe ...

s.Maurer, ''Combat Units'', p. 208 The 321st performed the

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

mission for

First Air Force The First Air Force (Air Forces Northern & Air Forces Space; 1 AF-AFNORTH & AFSPACE) is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC). It is headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. Its primary mission i ...

in the northeast during 1942 and 1943 while also conducting operational training. Operational training units were oversized parent units which provided cadres to "satellite groups."Craven & Cate, Introduction, p. xxxvi It later became a replacement training unit, remaining an oversized unit, but preparing individual

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

s for

combat Combat (French language, French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent Conflict (process), conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed (Hand-to-hand combat, not usin ...

duty in the Thunderbolt. In October 1943, the 326th Group provided the cadre to form the

402d Fighter Group 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is a square number, the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. Evolution of the Hi ...

. The 321st then moved to

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 F4F Wildcat crash near Norbeck, Maryla ...

, North Carolina, along with the group

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

and the other group squadron (the 322d) stationed at

Westover Field 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, Ame ...

, Massachusetts. However, the

Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

was finding that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were proving not well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each of its bases was organized into a separate numbered unit. As a result, in 1944 the squadron was disbanded as the AAF converted to the AAF Base Unit system. The 123d AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Fighter) replaced the group headquarters and squadrons at Seymour Johnson.

Cold War air defense

The squadron was reconstituted, redesignated as the 321st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and activated in 1955 as an

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

(ADC) operational air defense unit at

, Washington. It absorbed the personnel and equipment of the 83d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron as part of ADC's Project Arrow, which was designed to bring back on the active list the fighter units which had compiled memorable records in the two world wars.Buss, ''et al''., p.6 The 321st was equipped with

Northrop F-89D Scorpion The Northrop F-89 Scorpion is an all-weather, twin-engined interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Northrop Corporation. It was the first jet-powered aircraft to be designed for the interceptor role f ...

s, armed with Mighty Mouse rockets.Cornett & Johnson, p. 125 The group received later model Scorpions and by 1956 was entirely equipped with the F-89H, which could carry

AIM-4 Falcon The Hughes AIM-4 Falcon was the first operational guided air-to-air missile of the United States Air Force. Development began in 1946; the weapon was first tested in 1949. The missile entered service with the USAF in 1956. Produced in both heat- ...

s in addition to the unguided Mighty Mouse rockets. It finally equipped with nuclear-capable F-89Js, armed with the

AIR-2 Genie The Douglas Aircraft Company, Douglas AIR-2 Genie (previous designation MB-1) was an unguided air-to-air rocket with a 1.5 kt W25 (nuclear warhead), W25 nuclear warhead. It was deployed by the United States Air Force (USAF 1957–1985) and Cana ...

and equipped with

data link A data link is a means of telecommunications link, 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 t ...

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 spring of 1958. The 321st Squadron was discontinued on 1 March 1960 in preparation for the move of the

64th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron The 64th Aggressor Squadron is a United States Air Force unit. It is assigned to the 57th Adversary Tactics Group at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The 64th AGRS is assigned 24 F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft, painted in ...

and its

Convair F-102 Delta Dagger The Convair F-102 Delta Dagger is an interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair. A member of the Century Series, the F-102 was the first operational supersonic interceptor and delta-wing fighter op ...

s to Paine from Alaska.Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 244

Lineage

* Constituted as the 321st Fighter Squadron (Single Engine) on 24 June 1942 : Activated on 25 August 1942 : Disbanded on 10 April 1944 * Reconstituted and redesignated 321st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron on 20 June 1955 : Activated on 18 August 1955 : Discontinued on 1 March 1960

Assignments

* 326th Fighter Group, 25 August 1942 – 10 April 1944, 18 August 1955 – 1 March 1960

Stations

* Mitchel Field, New York, 19 August 1942 * Bradley Field, Connecticut, 2 September 194 * Westover Field, Massachusetts, 1 November 1942 * Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina, 17 October 1943 – 10 April 1944 * Paine Air Force Base, Washington, 18 August 1955 – 1 March 1960

Aircraft

* Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, 1942–1944 * Northrop F-89D Scorpion, 1955–1956 * Northrop F-89H Scorpion, 1956–1958 * Northrop F-89J Scorpion, 1958–1960

References

; Notes ; Citations

Bibliography

* Buss, Lydus H.(ed), Sturm, Thomas A., Volan, Denys, and McMullen, Richard F., History of Continental Air Defense Command and Air Defense Command July to December 1955, Directorate of Historical Services, Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, CO, (1956) * * :: * * *

External links

{{USAAF 1st Air Force World War II

321 Year 321 ( CCCXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Crispus and Constantinus (or, less frequently, year 1074 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 3 ...

Military units and formations established in 1955 1955 establishments in the United States