1st Fighter Squadron

The 1st Fighter Squadron (1 FS) was most recently based at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. It operated F-15C Eagle aircraft conducting advanced fighter training.

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.