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|---|---|
 Emblem of the 57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron | |
| Active | 1940–1995 |
| Country | United States |
| Branch | United States Air Force |
| Type | Fighter-Interceptor |
The 57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, also known as "The Black Knights of Keflavik", is an inactive United States Air Force unit. The 57 FIS was last stationed at Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland. It was inactivated on 1 March, 1995.
History
World War II
The 57th Pursuit Squadron was established on January 1, 1941 at Hamilton Field, California. Along with the 42nd and 56th squadrons it was a part of the 54th Pursuit Group. It was formed with a cadre from the 35th Pursuit Group.
The squadron operated both Bell P-39 Aircobras and Curtiss P-40 Warhawks alongside each other which was rather unusual, and in June 1942 it was sent to Alaska. It was first based at Elmendorf Field, Anchorage and according to the official records, it would seem that it did not in itself take any part in the action against the Japanese in the Aleutians, but a detachment of eleven of the pilots saw service with the 42d which was based at Kodiak NAS, Adak and between them got three confirmed victories and two probables. On August 4, 1942, the 57th was moved to Kodiak NAS, Adak and there replaced the 42d. All its pilots were rotated to Adak to gain combat experience.
The assignment of the 57th to Alaska came to end on November 26, 1942 and the P-39s were to be flown to Duncan Army Airfield, San Antonio, Texas for depot-level overhaul. With the squadron back at Harding Army Airfield, Baton Rouge, it was reequipped with the North American P-51A Mustang, thereby becoming the first P-51 unit in the AAF. On May 12, 1943 the 54th Group with the 57th and 56th squadrons was transferred to Bartow Army Airfield, Florida. There it became a replacement training group, training P-51 pilots for overseas duty. It reequipped with P-51Bs at Bartow. The 57th squadron was disbanded on April 30, 1944, being replaced by an Army Air Force Base Unit as part of a re-orgazation of training units.
The unit was reactivated under Strategic Air Command on 24 March 1947 as an Air Force Reserve fighter-escort squadron under the reserve 459th Bombardment Group at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona. It is unclear whether or nor the unit was manned or equipped as the 459th was located at Long Beach Army Air Field, California with B-29 Superfortresses. It was inactivated in June 1959 due to budget reductions.
Air Defense Command
The 57th was reactivated as an active squadron at Presque Isle AFB, Maine, on March 20, 1953 under Air Defense Command and designated the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. It was equipped with Northrop F-89C Scorpion interceptor, and assigned to the 528th Air Defense Group. It maintained a 24 hour alert at Presque Isle.
On 12 November 1954, the 57th FIS was moved to Keflavik Airport, Iceland, replacing the 82d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron which was temporarily assigned from Larson AFB, Washington. At Keflavik, ADC was a tenant unit under the Military Air Transport Service Iceland Air Defense Force (IADF).
The mission of the 57th FIS at Keflavik was a interceptor squadron charged with the monitoring of the Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom (GIUK gap) in the North Atlantic that formed a naval warfare choke point during the Cold War. The 57th would respond alerts from ADC Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning stations established on Iceland; the GCI stations guiding its interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the radar scopes. Over 1,000 intercepts of Soviet aircraft took place inside Iceland's Military Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
On 18 December 1955 the IADF was re-designated as the MATS 1400th Operations Group as the mission at Keflavik was expanded to accommodate Tactical Air Command and Strategic Air Command transient aircraft. In 1959, a retrenchment of USAF operations began, including the reduction of F-89 interceptors by ADC and SAC (tenant) activities.
Air Force activities at the airport were reorganized and placed under the ADC Air Forces Iceland, which functioned at a Wing level on 1 July 1960. Shortly afterwards, the USAF transferred jurisdiction of Keflavik Airport to the to the United States Navy on 1 July 1961 which named it U.S. Naval Station Keflavik. The Air Force units at Keflavik operated in a tenant status with the 57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron and two Radar Aircraft Control and Warning Squadrons on 1 Jul 1961.
In 1962 ADC replaced the F-89s with newer F-102 Delta Daggers supersonic interceptors, the F-89s generally being worn-out after nearly a decade of continual interceptions. Challenges by the 57th FIS to Soviet aircraft on flights over the North Atlantic and along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States to bases in Cuba continued throughout the 1960s.
Tactical/Air Combat Air Command
On 1 October 1979 Tactical Air Command (TAC) absorbed ADC's assets, and the F-4E Phantom II aircraft of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (57 FIS). In July 1985, F-15Cs and F-15Ds replaced the aging F-4s, and the tail code "IS" was assigned to Air Forces Iceland (AFI).
On 1 June 1992, Air Combat Command (ACC) assumed command and control of AFI and the 57th FIS. Less than a year later, the 57th FIS was redesignated as the 57th Fighter Squadron (57 FS) and reassigned to the 35th Fighter Wing (35 WG) that was transferred from the closing George AFB, California.
On 1 October 1994, the 35th Wing was inactivated at Keflavik and eplaced by the newly-activated 85th Wing. On 1 March 1995, the 57th FS was deactivated and the interceptor force was replaced by Regular Air Force and Air National Guard F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft rotating every 90 days to Iceland until the USAF deactivated the 85th Group in 2002.
Lineage
- Constituted 57th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) on November 20, 1940.
- Activated on January 15, 1941.
- Redesignated 57th Fighter Squadron on May 15, 1942
- Disbanded on May 1, 1944.
- Reconstituted on March 24, 1947.
- Activated in the reserve on May 15, 1947.
- Inactivated on June 27, 1949.
- Redesignated 57th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron on February 11, 1953.
- Activated on March 27, 1953
- Inactivated on March 1, 1995
Assignments
- 54th Pursuit (later Fighter) Group, 15 Jan 1941-1 May 1944
- 459th Bombardment Group, 15 May 1947-27 Jun 1949
- 528th Air Defense Group, 27 Mar 1953
- Iceland Air Defense Force, 13 Nov 1954
- 1400th Operations Group, 18 Dec 1955
- Air Forces Iceland, 1 Jul 1960
- 35th Wing, June 4, 1992 – 1 Oct 1994
- 85th Group, 1 Oct 1994 - 1 Mar 1995
Stations
- Hamilton Field, California, January 15, 1941
- Everett, Washington, June 26, 1941
- Harding Field, Louisiana, January 31, 1942
- Detachment operated from: San Diego Airport, California, May 28 – June 12, 1942
- Detachment operated from: Elmendorf Airfield, Alaska, June 20 – September 30, 1942
- Detachment operated from: Kodiak, Alaska, September 29 – December 1, 1942
- Bartow AAF, Florida, May 12, 1943 – May 1, 1944
- Davis Monthan AFB, Arizona, May 15, 1947 – June 27, 1949
- Presque Isle AFB, Maine, March 27, 1953
- Keflavik Aprt (later NAS Keflavik), Iceland, November 12, 1954 – March 1, 1995
Aircraft
- P-39 Airacobra, 1941–1943
- P-51 Mustang, 1943–1944
- F-89C Scorpion, 1953–1962
- F-102 Delta Dagger, 1962–1973
- F-4 Phantom II, 1973–1985
- F-15 Eagle, 1985–1995
References
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
- 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).
