538th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
| 538th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron | |
|---|---|
Squadron F-104s at Luke Air Force Base
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| Active | 1943–1960 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Decorations | Air Force Outstanding Unit Award |
| Insignia | |
| 538th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron emblem (approved 20 December 1956) |  |
The 538th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive unit of United States Air Force. It was last assigned to the Spokane Air Defense Sector at Larson Air Force Base, Washington.
The squadron was first activated during World War II as the 538th Fighter Squadron. It briefly served as a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt replacement unit before being disbanded in a major reorganization of Army Air Forces training units in the spring of 1944. The squadron was again activated in 1955 as an interceptor unit of Air Defense Command, defending the northwestern United States. It was inactivated in 1960, when the Air Force transferred its Lockheed F-104 Starfighters to the Air National Guard.
The squadron was first activated by I Fighter Command in October 1943 at Westover Field, Massachusetts as one of the three original squadrons of the 402d Fighter Group. Less than two weeks later, the squadron moved with its group headquarters to Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina. At Seymour Johnson, the 538th and 539th Fighter Squadrons of the 402d Group were reassigned to the 326th Fighter Group, which transferred two of its squadrons to the 402d.
The 326th Group was a Replacement Training Unit for Republic P-47 Thunderbolt pilots. Replacement Training Units were oversized units that trained individual pilots. Like most such units, the 326th prepared to conduct a split operation and the 538th and 539th Squadrons moved to Bluethenthal Field, North Carolina, while group headquarters and its other two squadrons remained at Seymour Johnson. The squadron finally received its Thunderbolts in early 1944 and began operations. However, the Army Air Forces was finding that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were not proving to be well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. The 538th was disbanded and its mission, personnel and equipment were transferred to the 124th AAF Base Unit (Fighter) and combined with other units at Bluethenthal.
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