456th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

456th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
Three F-106s Castle AFB, about 1966 with the squadron emblem on their tails
Active	1944–1946; 1954-1955; 1955-1968
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Air Defense
Insignia
Patch with 456th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron emblem

The 456th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the Air Defense Command San Francisco Air Defense Sector stationed at Oxnard AFB, California. It was inactivated on 18 July 1968.

It was established in late 1944 as a very long range P-47N Thunderbolt fighter squadron. It trained under III Fighter Command. the Squadron was deployed to Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO), and assigned to XXI Bomber Command as a long-range escort squadron for B-29 Superfortress bombers engaged in the strategic bombardment of Japan, based on Iwo Jima. After the Japanese capitulation, it was moved to Luzon where the squadron was demobilized; the P-47Ns were returned to storage depots in the United States. It was inactivated as a paper unit in 1946.

It was reactivated in 1954 under Air Defense Command as an air defense interceptor squadron, and stationed at George AFB, California for the air defense of Southern California. It was equipped with F-86D Sabres. In August 1955 the unit was inactivated, and was reactivated again at Castle AFB in October 1955 with F-86D Sabre Interceptors. In 1957 it began re-equipping with the North American F-86L Sabre, an improved version of the F-86D which incorporated the Semi Automatic Ground Environment, or SAGE computer-controlled direction system for intercepts. The service of the F-86L was brief, since by the time the last F-86L conversion was delivered, the type was already being phased out in favor of supersonic interceptors.