Active 1942–1944; 1956-1968 Role Fighter-Interceptor | Country United States Part of Air Defense Command | |
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Branch United States Air Force | ||
The 98th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the New York Air Defense Sector of Air Defense Command stationed at Suffolk County Air Force Base, New York, where it was inactivated on 30 September 1968.
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World War II
It was activated in the summer of 1942 as part of III Fighter Command. It became a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk replacement training unit (RTU). It was inactivated on 1 May 1944 as part of a reorganization of training units.
Air Defense Command
It was reactivated in 1953 as part of Air Defense Command as an air defense squadron, equipped with Northrop F-89D Scorpion interceptors, and assigned to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware with a mission for the air defense of Philadelphia Delaware-Maryland-Virginia region. On 22 October 1962, before President John F. Kennedy told Americans that missiles were in place in Cuba, the squadron dispersed one third of its force, equipped with nuclear tipped missiles to Atlantic City Airport at the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis. These planes returned to Dover after the crisis.
The squadron moved to Suffolk County Air Force Base, New York in 1963 to become part of the New York City air defense force. It upgraded in 1959 to the new McDonnell F-101B Voodoo and assigned alongside the F-101B interceptor was the F-101F operational and conversion trainer. The two-seat trainer version was equipped with dual controls, but carried the same armament as the F-101B and were fully combat-capable interceptors. It was inactivated in September 1968 as part of the drawdown of ADC interceptor bases, and the aircraft were passed along to the Air National Guard.