The 323d 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

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 ...

Ernest Harmon Air Force Base Ernest Harmon Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The base was built by the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United K ...

, Newfoundland, where it was inactivated on 1 July 1960. The squadron was first activated as the 323d Fighter Squadron during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The unit served as a crew training unit until it was disbanded in a major reorganization of

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 ...

units in the United States in 1944. The squadron was reconstituted in 1953 as

expanded in the early 1950s. It initially provided defense for the Northwestern United States, but in 1957 moved to Newfoundland where it performed the same mission until inactivated in 1960.

History

World War II

The squadron was first activated in August 1942 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 as one of the original three squadrons of the 327th Fighter Group. The following month it moved to its permanent home at

Richmond Army Air Base Richmond International Airport is a joint civil-military airport in Sandston, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community (in Henrico County). The airport is about 7 miles (11 km) southeast of downtown Richmond, the capital of the ...

, Virginia. The squadron initially performed acted as an operational training unit with

Curtiss P-40 Warhawk The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter-bomber that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry ...

s as part of the

I Fighter Command I Fighter Command was a United States Army Air Forces intermediate command responsible for command and control of the fighter operations within the First Air Force during World War II. It was initially established in June 1941 as the 1st Inter ...

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 ...

for single-engine pilots who had just graduated from

Army Air Forces Training Command The United States Army Air Forces during World War II had major subordinate Commands below the Air Staff level. These Commands were organized along functional missions. One such Command was the Flying Training Command (FTC). It began as Air Cor ...

advanced flying schools. It was an oversized unit providing cadres to newly organized "satellite groups". After February 1944, the squadron became a replacement training unit training pilots in the

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt The P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II fighter aircraft built by Republic Aviation from 1941 to 1945. Early designs XP-47 (AP-10) In response to a USAAC requirement for a new fighter aircraft, Republic Aviation engineer Alexander Kartveli p ...

before they were sent overseas to combat units as replacement pilots. However, the

(AAF) was finding that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were proving less well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, a more functional system was adopted in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. The squadron was disbanded in 1944 as the AAF converted to the AAF Base Unit system and replaced by the 390th Army Air Forces Base Unit, Squadron "A", which assumed its mission, personnel and equipment.

Cold War Air Defense

The 323d was reconstituted as the 323d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron under the

25th Air Division The 25th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force intermediate echelon command and control organization. It was last assigned to First Air Force, Tactical Air Command (ADTAC). It was inactivated on 30 September 1990 at McChord Air ...

(ADC) at

Larson Air Force Base Larson Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located five miles (8 km) northwest of the central business district (CBD) of Moses Lake, in Grant County, Washington. After its closure in 1966, the airport facility became ...

, Washington in November 1952 as part of the buildup of air defense interceptor units in the United States during the early years of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. The squadron was temporarily attached to the

4702d Defense Wing The 4702nd Defense Wing (Def Wg) is a discontinued wing of the United States Air Force, last assigned to the 25th Air Division at Geiger Field, Washington. It was established in 1952 at Hamilton AFB, California in a general reorganization of Air ...

, until the

4704th Defense Wing The 4704th Defense Wing is a discontinued United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the 25th Air Division of Air Defense Command (ADC) at McChord Air Force Base, Washington, where it was discontinued in 1954. It was est ...

became operational following its move from California to Washington. The squadron mission was

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 ...

of the Pacific Northwest, particularly the

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...

and the

Hanford Nuclear Reservation The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It has also been known as SiteW and the Hanford Nuclear Re ...

. The squadron was temporarily equipped with

era

North American F-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter aircraft, fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by a team headed ...

s, but upgraded to Mighty Mouse rocket armed and airborne intercept

radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...

equipped

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") is an American transonic jet interceptor aircraft, interceptor. Developed for the United States Air Force in the late 1940s, it was ...

jet interceptors in 1953. In the summer of 1955 ADC implemented 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, 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., p.6 As part of this project, the 327th Fighter Group was activated to replace the

520th Air Defense Group The 520th Air Defense Group is a disbanded United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the 4706th Air Defense Wing at Truax Field, Wisconsin, where it was inactivated in 1955. The group was originally activated as the ...

at Truax Field, Wisconsin Because Project Arrow also reunited squadrons with their traditional 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 ...

, the 323nd moved on paper to Truax, where it assumed the mission, personnel and aircraft of the

432d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron The 432d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 475th Fighter Group at Minneapolis-Saint Paul Joint Air Reserve Station, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Minnesota ...

, which moved on paper to another ADC base. The unit's new mission was air defense of the upper Great Lakes region. In November 1956, the squadron upgraded to supersonic

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 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 ...

to communicate directly with

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 ...

(SAGE)

computers A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ('' computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as ''programs'', ...

located in combat control centers and armed with the

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- ...

Missile. The squadron transferred in 1957 to

Ernest Harmon AFB Ernest Harmon Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force base located in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador. The base was built by the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement with the United Ki ...

, Newfoundland, swapping stations with the

61st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron The 61st Fighter Squadron is an active United States Air Force unit, assigned to the 56th Operations Group, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. It operates the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, conducting Pilot training. The 61st, known as the 'Top Dog ...

, which moved to Truax from Harmon.Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 237 Its mission became air defense of the Newfoundland Straits and the Great Circle polar route from the Soviet Union over Greenland to Canada and the United States. In 1960 it was assigned directly to the

Goose Air Defense Sector The Goose Air Defense Sector (GADS) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with the 26th Air Division, being stationed at Goose Air Force Base, Labrador, Canada. It was inactivated on 1 April 1966 and re ...

, but was inactivated later that year due to the emerging threat of missiles rather than crewed aircraft.

Lineage

* Constituted as the 323d Fighter Squadron (Single Engine) on 24 June 1942 : Activated on 25 August 1942 : Disbanded on 10 April 1944 * Reconstituted, and redesignated 323d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron on 14 November 1952 : Activated on 26 November 1952 : Discontinued on 1 July 1960

Assignments

* 327th Fighter Group: 25 August 1942 – 10 April 1944 * 25th Air Division: (attached to 4704th Defense Wing): 26 November 1952 * 4702d Defense Wing: 19 January 1953 * 9th Air Division: 8 October 1954 * 327th Fighter Group: 18 August 1955 * 4731st Air Defense Group: 15 October 1957 * Goose Air Defense Sector: 6 June 1960 – 1 July 1960

Stations

* Mitchel Field, New York, 25 August 1942 *

Philadelphia Municipal Airport Philadelphia Municipal Airport is a public use airport in Neshoba County, Mississippi, United States. It is owned by the City of Philadelphia and located two nautical miles (4 km) northwest of its central business district. This airp ...

, Pennsylvania, 25 August 1942 * Richmond Army Air Base, Virginia, 19 September 1942 – 10 April 1944 * Larson Air Force Base, Washington, 26 November 1952 * Truax Field, Wisconsin, 18 August 1955 * Ernest Harmon Air Force Base, Newfoundland, 15 October 1957 – 1 July 1960

Aircraft

* Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, 1942–1943 * Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, 1943–1944 * North American F-51D Mustang, 1952 * North American F-86D Sabre, 1953–1956 * Convair F-102A and TF-102A Delta Dagger, 1956–1960

References

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 * * * *