42d Flying Training Squadron

42d Flying Training Squadron
T-38s from Columbus AFB
Active	1940–1944; 1947-1949; 1953-1958; 1990-1991
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Role	Flying Training
Engagements	Asiatic-Pacific Theater American Theater of World War II
Insignia
Patch with the 42d Flying Training Squadron Emblem

The 42d Flying Training Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit, last assigned to Air Training Command at Columbus AFB, Mississippi, where it was inactivated on December 15, 1991.

The squadron was first activated at Hamilton Field, California in 1941 as the 42d Pursuit Squadron. It deployed to Alaska where it participated in combat during the Aleutian Campaign. It returned to the United States, where it became a training unit and was disbanded in a general reorganization of the Army Air Forces in 1944.

From 1947 to 1949 the squadron was active in the Air Force Reserve as the 42d Fighter Squadron, but was not fully manned or equipped.

The squadron was redesignated the 42d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and activated in 1953 as an air defense unit in the midwestern United States. It flew North American F-86 Sabres until it was inactivated in 1958.

The squadron conducted undergraduate pilot training as the 42d Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base from 1990 to 1992.

The squadron was activated at Hamilton Field, California as the 42d Pursuit Squadron on 15 January 1941, as one of the three original squadrons of the 54th Pursuit Group. It trained with Curtiss P-36 Hawks and Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, then moved to Everett Army Air Field, and served as a part of the air defense force for the Pacific coast during the first few months of World War II. The squadron was redesignated as a fighter unit in May 1942.