440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
Emblem of the 440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron
Active	1943–1960
Country	United States
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Fighter-Interceptor

440th FIS F-86D 52-3900

The 440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, stationed at Erding Air Station, West Germany. It was inactivated on 16 February 1959.

History

Activated in 1943 as a III Fighter Command P-51 Mustang Operational, later Replacement Training Unit. Inactivated in May 1944 with the end of RTU training.

Reactivated in 1953 as an F-86D Sabre Interceptor Squadron in West Germany, assigned to the 86th Fighter-Bomber Group at Landstuhl AB. Deployed to Erding Air Base in Bavaria, operating as a forward-deployed squadron near the Czechoslovakian border until inactivated with the withdrawal of the F-86D from West Germany in 1960.

Lineage

• Constituted 440th Fighter Squadron 12 February 1943

Activated on 24 February 1943

Disbanded on 1 May 1944

• Reconstituted, and redesignated 440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, on 3 February 1953

Activated on 18 February 1953

Inactivated on 1 January 1960

Assignments

• 337th Fighter Group, 24 February 1943 – 1 May 1944
• 530th Air Defense Group, 18 February 1953
• Twelfth Air Force

Attached to 86th Fighter-Bomber Wing, 1 July 1954

• 7486th Air Defense (later Air Base) Group, 2 December 1954
• 86th Fighter-Interceptor Group, 3 January 1956
• 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, 8 March 1958 – 1 January 1960.

Stations

• Sarasota Army Airfield, Florida, 24 February 1943
• Pinellas Army Airfield, Florida, 15 April 1943 – 1 May 1944
• Geiger Field, Washington, 18 February 1953
• Landstuhl Air Base, West Germany, 4 July 1954
• Erding Air Base, West Germany, 17 February 1956 – 31 December 1959.

Aircraft

• P-40 Warhawk, 1943–1944
• P-51 Mustang, 1944
• F-86D Sabre Interceptor, 1953–1960

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.

• A Handbook of Aerospace Defense Organization 1946 - 1980, by Lloyd H. Cornett and Mildred W. Johnson, Office of History, Aerospace Defense Center, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
• Maurer, Maurer. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force: World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Office of Air Force History, 1982.
• USAF Aerospace Defense Command publication, The Interceptor, January 1979 (Volume 21, Number 1).