Active 1942–1944; 1955-1960 Role air defense | Country United States | |
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Branch United States Air Force | ||
The 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 64th Air Division at Thule Air Base, Greenland, where it was inactivated on 25 March 1960.
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The squadron was first active during World War II as a training unit. It was disbanded in 1944 when the Army Air Forces reorganized its training and support units in the United States.
The squadron was again activated in August 1955 at George Air Force Base, California. There, it became the first operational squadron to fly the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger. In 1958 it moved to Thule, where it replaced a unit flying older Northrop F-89 Scorpions.
World War II
The squadron was first activated at Hamilton Field, California in July 1942 as the 327th Fighter Squadron, one of the original squadrons of the 328th Fighter Group. The squadron initially participated in air defense of the Pacific coast from Hamilton and later from Mills Field. It also served as an Operational Training Unit (OTU). The OTU program involved the use of an oversized parent unit to provide cadres to "satellite groups". On 1 March 1943, the squadron mission changed to operating a Bell P-39 Airacobra Replacement Training Unit (RTU). Replacement Training Units were also oversized units, but they trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters.
In February 1944, the 327th moved to Marysville Army Air Field, where it continued as a P-39 RTU. However, the Army Air Forces found that standard military units, based on relatively inflexible tables of organization, were proving less well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit, while the groups and squadrons acting as RTUs were disbanded or inactivated. This resulted in the 327th, along with other units at Marysville, being disbanded in the spring of 1944 and being replaced by the 433d AAF Base Unit (Fighter Replacement Training Unit, Single Engine), which assumed the squadron's mission, personnel, and equipment.
Cold War air defense
The squadron was again activated as the 327th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at George Air Force Base, California in August 1955. At George, the squadron was initially equipped with radar equipped and Mighty Mouse rocket armed North American F-86D Sabres. These aircraft had been used at George by the 94th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, which moved from George to Selfridge Air Force Base as part of Air Defense Command (ADC)'s Project Arrow, which was designed to bring back on the active list the fighter units which had compiled memorable records in the two world wars and unite them with their traditional groups.
In April 1956, the 327th was the first ADC squadron to fly the Convair F-102A Delta Dagger in operational service, and became the first supersonic unit in Air Defense Command. These aircraft were also equipped with data link, which enabled them to interface directly with the Semi Automatic Ground Environment computers in ground direction centers, removing the need for voice communications by air to ground radions.
The squadron moved to Thule Air Base, Greenland in July 1958, assuming the air defense role there from the Northrop F-89 Scorpions of the 74th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. The squadron was inactivated there on 25 March 1960, but the Thule air defense mission was resumed within six weeks by the 332d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.