1st Fighter Squadron

Mission

The 1 FS provided fully qualified F-15 Eagle pilots for worldwide assignment by conducting formal ground, simulator, and flight training.

History

The 1st flew P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft during World War II. While based on Ie Shima the 1 FS launched Thunderbolts against the Japanese, amassing almost 1,200 combat air patrol, bombing, strafing, and escort missions. During this era, the squadron emblem was "Miss Fury," a 1940s-era comic strip superheroine. The 1 FS was inactivated on 15 October 1946, after the war had ended.

The 1 FS was activated as part of the 413th Fighter-Day Wing on 11 November 1954. The squadron trained pilots in the F-86 Sabre from 1954 to 1956 and the F-100 Super Sabre from 1956 to 1959. The 1st operated out of George Air Force Base, California, until it was again inactivated on 15 March 1959, with Lieutenant Colonel Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager as commander.

The squadron was reactivated 1 January 1984, as part of the 325th Tactical Training Wing, at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, to train pilots in the F-15 Eagle.

On 17 September 1991, the operations and maintenance functions of the 1st joined to form a combined squadron. The squadron continued to train F-15 pilots for the combat air forces and received several honors, such as earning the Air Force Maintenance Effectiveness Award for 1998, Nineteenth Air Force Top Operations Squadron of the Year for 1998, and 325th Fighter Wing Fighter Squadron of the Year for 1995, 1997, and 1998.

Other notable accomplishments include receiving the U. S. Air Force Air Flight Safety of the Year award for 2002, as well as recognition for best intelligence mission report. Also, members received by-name recognition during the 2003 Headquarters Air Education and Training Command Operational Readiness Inspection.

The 1st Fighter Squadron was inactivated on 15 December 2006.

Lineage

Constituted as the 1st Fighter Squadron, Single Engine on 5 October 1944

Activated on 15 October 1944 Inactivated on 15 October 1946

Redesignated 1st Fighter-Day Squadron on 26 August 1954

Activated on 11 November 1954

Redesignated 1st Tactical Fighter Squadron on 1 July 1958

Inactivated on 15 March 1959

Redesignated 1st Tactical Fighter Training Squadron on 14 October 1983

Activated on 1 January 1984

Redesignated 1st Fighter Squadron on 1 November 1991

Inactivated on 15 December 2006

Assignments

413th Fighter Group, 5 October 1944 – 15 October 1956

413th Fighter-Day Group, 11 November 1954

413th Fighter-Day Wing (later 413th Tactical Fighter Wing), 8 October 1957 – 15 March 1959 (attached to Sixteenth Air Force, 27 June – c. 12 November 1958)

325th Tactical Training Wing, 1 January 1984

325th Operations Group, 1 September 1991 – 15 December 2006

Stations

Seymour Johnson Field, North Carolina, 15 October 1944

Bluethenthal Field, North Carolina, 9 November 1944 – 7 April 1945

Ie Shima Airfield, Okinawa, 19 May 1945

Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, c. 17 November 1945

Yontan Airfield, Okinawa, 29 January 1946 – 15 October 1946

George Air Force Base, California, 11 November 1954 – 15 March 1959 (deployed at Morón Air Base, Spain (27 June – c. 12 November 1958)

Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, 1 January 1984 – 15 December 2006

Aircraft

P-47 Thunderbolt (1944–1946)

F-86 Sabre (1954–1956)

F-100 Super Sabre (1956–1959)

F-15 Eagle (1984–2006)