The 438th 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

35th Air Division The 35th Air Division (35th AD) is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command, assigned to First Air Force, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, Hancock Field, New York. It was inac ...

Griffiss Air Force Base Griffiss International Airport is a public airport in the northeastern United States, located east of the central business district of Rome, a city in Oneida County, New York. Publicly-owned by the county, the airport is located on the form ...

, New York, where it was inactivated on 30 September 1968. The squadron was first activated as the 438th 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 ...

. It served as a Replacement Training Unit until the spring of 1944, when it was disbanded in a general 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 ...

training units. It was reactivated in 1953 as an

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 ...

unit and served in that role until inactivated.

History

World War II

The squadron was first organized in February 1943 at

Page Field Page Field is a public airport located in Fort Myers, in Lee County, Florida, United States. It is owned by the Lee County Port Authority; the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a reliever airport. ...

, Florida as the fourth squadron of the 53d Fighter Group. It was initially equipped with

Bell P-39 Airacobra The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 was used by th ...

s, but before the year was over, switched to training pilots with the

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 ...

. The squadron was a Replacement Training Unit, an oversized unit whose mission was to train individual

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators because they are ...

.Maurer, ''Combat Units'', pp. 115-116 However, the

found that standard military units like the 438th, based on relatively inflexible

tables of organization A table of organization and equipment (TOE or TO&E) is the specified organization, staffing, and equipment of military units. Also used in acronyms as 'T/O' and 'T/E'. It also provides information on the mission and capabilities of a unit as well ...

were not well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit, manned according to the base's mission. The 53d Group and its two squadrons at Page Field, along with supporting units there were disbanded and replaced by the 338th AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Fighter) in May 1944.

Air Defense Command

438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Convair F-102A-80-CO Delta Dagger 56-1499

The squadron was reactivated under

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 ...

as the 438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, and stationed at

Kinross Air Force Base Kincheloe Air Force Base was a United States Air Force (USAF) base during the Cold War. Built in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1943 during World War II, the base was in service The base was known by various names, including Kinross Munic ...

, Michigan in April 1953. At its new base, the 438th was assigned to the 534th Air Defense Group and equipped with cannon-armed Lockheed F-94B Starfires.Cornett & Johnson, p.128 During the next seven years, it repeatedly upgraded its equipment. In December 1953 it transitioned into

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 FFAR rockets, and in the May 1957 into

Convair F-102A 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 ope ...

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 ...

for

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 ...

operations and armed with

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 June 1960 it received the

Convair F-106 Delta Dart The Convair F-106 Delta Dart is an all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Convair. The F-106 was designed in response to the 1954 interceptor program. Envisioned as an imagined "Ultimate I ...

s that would equip it for the remainder of the time it was on active duty. In August 1955, as part of Project Arrow, the 534th Group was inactivated and the squadron became part of the

507th Fighter Group 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

. On 22 October 1962, before President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

told Americans that missiles were in place in Cuba, the squadron dispersed one third of its force, equipped with nuclear tipped missiles to Phelps Collins Air National Guard Base at the start of the

Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...

. These planes returned to Kinchloe after the crisis. Air defense fighter operations at Kinchloe ended on 30 September 1968 with the inactivation of the 507th Fighter Wing. The squadron moved to

, New York, where it transferred its F-106s to the

49th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron The 49th Fighter Training Squadron is part of the 14th Flying Training Wing based at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi. It operates T-38 Talon aircraft conducting flight training. The squadron was first activated as the 49th Pursuit Squadro ...

, which had been flying

missions with

McDonnell F-101 Voodoo The McDonnell F-101 Voodoo is a Supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet fighter designed and produced by the American McDonnell Aircraft Corporation. Development of the F-101 began in the late 1940s as a long-range bomber escort (then known as a ...

s from Griffiss since 1959, and the 438th was inactivated the same day.Cornett & Johnson, p. 116

Lineage

* Constituted as the 438th Fighter Squadron on 12 February 1943 : Activated on 20 February 1943 : Disbanded on 5 May 1944 * Reconstituted and redesignated 438th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron on 11 February 1953 : Activated on 27 April 1953Lineage, including assignments, stations and aircraft through 1963 in Maurer, ''Combat Squadrons'', p. 543 : Inactivated on 30 September 1968

Assignments

* 53d Fighter Group, 20 February 1943 – 1 May 1944 * 534th Air Defense Group, 27 April 1953 * 507th Fighter Group, 18 August 1955 * 507th Fighter Wing, 1 February 1961 *

, 30 September 1968

Stations

* Fort Myers Army Air Field (later Page Field), Florida, 20 February 1943 – 1 May 1944 * Kinross Air Force Base (later Kincheloe Air Force Base), Michigan, 27 April 1953 * Griffiss Air Force Base, New York, 30 September 1968

Aircraft

* Bell P-39 Airacobra, 1943 * Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, 1943–1944 * Lockheed F-94B Starfire, 1953 * Northrop F-89D Scorpion, 1953–1957 * Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, 1957–1960 * Convair F-106 Delta Dart, 1960–1968

Notes

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) * * ** * * McMullen, Richard F. (1964) "The Fighter Interceptor Force 1962–1964" ADC Historical Study No. 27, Air Defense Command, Ent Air Force Base, CO (Confidential, declassified 22 March 2000) * ''NORAD/CONAD Participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis'', Historical Reference Paper No. 8, Directorate of Command History Continental Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, CO, 1 Feb 63 (Top Secret NOFORN declassified 9 March 1996)