473d Fighter Group

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473d Fighter Group
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62d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron F-101B 57-0386 1968.jpg

62d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron F-101B Voodoo 57-0386 at K.I. Sawyer AFB
Active 1942-1944; 1956-1959
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  United States
BranchFlag of the United States Air Force.svg  United States Air Force
Type Fighter
Role Air Defense
Part of Air Defense Command

The 473d Fighter Group is an inactive United States Air Force (USAF) unit. Its last assignment was with the 30th Air Division at K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base, Michigan, where it was inactivated on 30 September 1959.

United States Air Force Air and space warfare branch of the United States Armed Forces

The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial and space warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the five branches of the United States Armed Forces, and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially formed as a part of the United States Army on 1 August 1907, the USAF was established as a separate branch of the U.S. Armed Forces on 18 September 1947 with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947. It is the youngest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the fourth in order of precedence. The USAF is the largest and most technologically advanced air force in the world. The Air Force articulates its core missions as air and space superiority, global integrated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid global mobility, global strike, and command and control.

30th Air Division

The 30th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command, assigned to Tenth Air Force, being stationed at Sioux City Municipal Airport, Iowa. It was inactivated on 18 September 1968.

K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base Census-designated place & Unincorporated community in Michigan, United States

K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base is a decommissioned U.S. Air Force installation in Marquette County, Michigan, south of the city of Marquette. Near the center of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the base operated for nearly forty years and closed in 1995. The county airport, Sawyer International, now occupies a portion of the base and has scheduled airline flights and some general aviation activity. The area of the former base is now an unincorporated community and a census-designated place for statistical purposes known as K. I. Sawyer AFB.

Contents

During World War II, the unit was programmed as a replacement training unit for P-38 Lightning pilots but never became operational. It was disbanded in a general reorganization of the Army Air Forces into base units to make more efficient use of manpower.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

The group was reactivated as the 473d Fighter Group (Air Defense) in the spring of 1956 during the Cold War under Air Defense Command. The group opened K.I. Sawyer for use by the USAF, and after 1959 was responsible for air defense in the upper midwestern United States. Its mission, personnel and equipment were transferred to the 56th Fighter Group (Air Defense) in 1959 and the group was inactivated.

Cold War State of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. A common historiography of the conflict begins with 1946, the year U.S. diplomat George F. Kennan's "Long Telegram" from Moscow cemented a U.S. foreign policy of containment of Soviet expansionism threatening strategically vital regions, and ending between the Revolutions of 1989 and the 1991 collapse of the USSR, which ended communism in Eastern Europe. The term "cold" is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars.

History

World War II

The 473d Fighter Group was activated at Grand Central Air Terminal, California in late 1943. [1] It was originally assigned the 482d, [2] 483d [3] and 484th Fighter Squadrons. [4] A month later the 451st Fighter Squadron was activated and assigned to the group. [5] The group was a Replacement Training Unit equipped primarily with Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, [1] but its squadrons flew a variety of aircraft. [2] [3] [4] [5] Replacement training units were oversized units which trained aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters. [6]

Lockheed P-38 Lightning airplane

The Lockheed P-38 Lightning is a World War II–era American piston-engined fighter aircraft. Developed for the United States Army Air Corps, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Allied propaganda claimed it had been nicknamed the fork-tailed devil by the Luftwaffe and "two planes, one pilot" by the Japanese. The P-38 was used for interception, dive bombing, level bombing, ground attack, night fighting, photo reconnaissance, radar and visual pathfinding for bombers and evacuation missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.

Aircrew personnel operating an aircraft in flight, including pilots, systems operators, and attendants

Aircrew, also called flight crew, are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose.

However, at the time the 473d was being organized, 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. [7] In the final days of March 1944, the group and three of its squadrons moved to Ephrata Army Air Base, Washington, while the 482d squadron moved to Moses Lake Army Air Field, Washington. The group and squadrons acting as RTUs were then disbanded. [8] The units at Ephrata were combined into the 430th AAF Base Unit (Fighter Replacement Training Unit-Single Engine). [9] The 482d formed the basis for the 431st AAF Base Unit. [10]

Air Defense in the 1950s

The group was reactivated in April 1956 [1] during the Cold War by Air Defense Command to open K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base, Michigan. The 473d was initially assigned to the 4710th Air Defense Wing. [11] The group was the host for all USAF organizations at K.I. Sawyer and was assigned several support organizations to fulfill this responsibility. [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] In July, the 4710th wing was discontinued and the group was assigned directly to the 37th Air Division. The operational squadron assigned to the group was the 484th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, which was authorized Northrop F-89 Scorpion aircraft. However, these aircraft were not delivered before the squadron was inactivated in February 1959 and the squadron did not become operational. [4] In fact, it was 1959 before the K.I. Sawyer runway was completed and ready to accept modern aircraft. [12]

The 4710th Air Defense Wing is a discontinued unit of the United States Air Force. It was last stationed at O'Hare International Airport, Illinois, where it was assigned to the 37th Air Division of Air Defense Command (ADC), and where it was discontinued in 1956. It was established in 1952 at New Castle AFB, Delaware as the 4710th Defense Wing in a general reorganization of Air Defense Command (ADC), which replaced wings responsible for a base with wings responsible for a geographical area. It assumed control of several fighter Interceptor squadrons that had been assigned to the 113th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, which was an Air National Guard wing mobilized for the Korean War.

37th Air Division 1951-1969 United States Air Force unit

The 37th Air Division is an inactive United States Air Force organization. Its last assignment was with Air Defense Command at Goose Air Force Base, Labrador, Canada It was inactivated on 30 June 1970.

Northrop F-89 Scorpion An American jet-powered all-weather interceptor aircraft

The Northrop F-89 Scorpion was an American all-weather interceptor built during the 1950s, the first jet-powered aircraft designed for that role from the outset to enter service. Though its straight wings limited its performance, it was among the first United States Air Force (USAF) jet fighters equipped with guided missiles and notably the first combat aircraft armed with air-to-air nuclear weapons.

In August 1958, the group became host to a Strategic Air Command wing, the 4042d Strategic Wing. Although the 4042d was initially activated as a headquarters only, it would be the framework for a forward based Boeing B-52 Stratofortress equipped bombardment wing. [12] The following August, the 62d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron moved to K.I. Sawyer, was attached to the wing, and equipped with McDonnell F-101 Voodoos. [17] The squadron had moved from O'Hare International Airport, where there was local resistance to maintaining a regular USAF presence at one of the world's busiest civilian airports. Security for the Voodoo's nuclear armed MB-1 Genie at a civilian location was also a concern. Two months after the arrival of the 62d, its parent group, the 56th Fighter Group and its support units moved on paper from O'Hare to K.I. Sawyer and assumed the mission, personnel and equipment of the 473d, which was inactivated. [18]

Lineage

Activated on 1 November 1943
Disbanded on 31 March 1944
Activated on 8 April 1956
Inactivated on 30 September 1959

Assignments

Components

Stations

Aircraft

See also

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References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 345–356
  2. 1 2 3 Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 580
  3. 1 2 3 Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 581
  4. 1 2 3 4 Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 582
  5. 1 2 3 Maurer, Combat Squadrons, p. 557
  6. ↑ Craven & Cate, Vol. VI, Men & Planes, p. xxxvi
  7. ↑ Craven & Cate, The Organization and its Responsibilities, Chapter 2 The AAF p. 75
  8. ↑ Maurer, Combat Units, p. 7
  9. ↑ "Abstract, History Ephrata Army Air Base Apr-Jul 1944". Air Force History Index. 2008-09-22. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "Abstract, History Moses Lake Army Air Base Sep 1944". Air Force History Index. 2008-09-22. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Cornett & Johnson, p. 80
  12. 1 2 3 4 See Mueller, p. 296
  13. 1 2 Cornett & Johnson, p. 140
  14. 1 2 Cornett & Johnson, p. 146
  15. 1 2 "Abstract, History 473 USAF Infirmary Apr-Jun 1956". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Abstract, History 473 USAF Dispensary Jul-Dec 1957". Air Force History Index. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  17. ↑ Maurer, Combat Squadrons, pp. 239-240
  18. ↑ Robertson, Patsy (2009-05-18). "Factsheet 56 Operations Group (AETC)". Air Force Historical Research Agency. Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  19. ↑ Department of the Air Force/MPM Letter 648q, 31 July 1985, Subject: Reconstitution, Redesignation, and Consolidation of Selected Air Force Organizations
  20. ↑ Maurer, Combat Units, pp. 426-427

Bibliography

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