World War II The
squadron was activated as the
484th Fighter Squadron in November 1943 at
Grand Central Air Terminal, California, forming one of the three original squadrons of the
473d Fighter Group, The squadron was intended to become a
Lockheed P-38 Lightning Replacement Training Unit. Replacement training units were oversized units which trained
aircrews prior to their deployment to combat theaters. However, the squadron operated
Bell P-39 Airacobras and other aircraft, and never became operational with P-38s. The
Army Air Forces (AAF) found that standard military units like the 484th, whose manning was based on relatively inflexible
tables of organization were proving not well adapted to the training mission, even more so to the replacement mission. Accordingly, the AAF adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit. Upon arrival at Ephrata, the squadron was disbanded and its personnel used to form part of the
cadre of the 430th AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Fighter, Single Engine).
Cold War air defense The 473d Fighter Group was activated again in 1956 by
Air Defense Command to open
K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base, and the
484th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was activated as its operational squadron, authorized
Northrop F-89 Scorpion aircraft. However, the squadron never received its aircraft and was inactivated before the runways at K.I. Sawyer were ready to receive operational aircraft. The 473d Group was replaced by the
56th Fighter Group in 1959 as the host and operational unit at K.I. Sawyer. ==Lineage==