World War II It was established in early 1942 as a
IV Fighter Command squadron, and equipped with
Lockheed P-38 Lightnings. After training in California it was deployed overseas to the
European Theater of Operations in England. It was assigned to
RAF Goxhill for European transition training with the
Royal Air Force, and then assigned to its operational station at
RAF Duxford. It was assigned to
VIII Fighter Command for heavy bomber escort duties of
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and
Consolidated B-24 Liberators, engaged in long range strategic bombardment of military and industrial targets in
Occupied Europe and
Nazi Germany. It engaged in air-to-air combat with
Luftwaffe interceptors over
France and the Low Countries; the extended range of the P-38 could not extend over Germany. It replaced P-38s with
Republic P-47 Thunderbolts in mid-1943; later with
North American P-51D Mustangs in 1944 which enabled the squadron to fly escort missions deep into Germany and also engage in fighter sweeps over enemy airfields, bridges, railroads, road transport and other targets of opportunity. It continued combat operations until the German capitulation in May 1945. The squadron demobilized in England during the summer of 1945, returned to the United States and was inactivated largely as a paper unit in October 1945. It was reactivated by the
United States Air Forces in Europe in 1946 as an occupation unit at Army Air Force Station Straubing, Germany in 1946–1947.
Air Defense Command The 83d was transferred from USAFE to
Air Defense Command (ADC) in June 1947, and stationed at
Mitchell Field, New York. Prior to being equipped it was transferred to
Hamilton Air Force Base, California, where it received F-51D Mustangs and
Republic F-84B Thunderjets. In the fall of 1950 it was upgraded to F-84Ds, and in August 1951 it transitioned into
Northrop F-89B Scorpions. In July 1952 the squadron moved to
Paine Field, Washington, and received
North American F-86D Sabres. In August 1955 the 83d FIS designation was transferred back to Hamilton to another F-86D squadron, and the organization at Paine Field was reassigned. In December 1957, the 83d received
AIM-9 Sidewinder-armed
Lockheed F-104 Starfighters and become the first operational F-104 squadron in ADC. In addition, the squadron received the two-seat, dual-control combat trainer F-104B. The performance of the F-104B was almost identical to that of the F-104A, but the lower internal fuel capacity reduced its effective range considerably. It was found that the F-104A was not very well-suited for service as an interceptor. ADC released all its F-104s to the
Air National Guard in 1960 because its fire control system was not sophisticated enough to operating in conjunction with the
Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system to make it an all-weather interceptor. Service with the F-104s was consequently quite brief, and the Starfighters were replaced by the more heavily armed all-weather
McDonnell F-101B Voodoo in July 1960. The F-101B proved to be a quite successful interceptor. Assigned alongside the F-101B interceptor was the F-101F operational and conversion trainer. The two-seat trainer version was equipped with dual controls, but carried the same armament as the F-101B and were fully combat-capable. On 22 October 1962, before President
John F. Kennedy told Americans that missiles were in place in Cuba, the squadron dispersed one-third of its force, equipped with nuclear-tipped missiles, to
Kingsley Field at the start of the
Cuban Missile Crisis. These planes returned to Hamilton after the crisis. Although the number of ADC interceptor squadrons remained almost constant in the early 1960s, the number of planes assigned to each squadron gradually dropped from 24 to typically 18 by 1964. This drop a result of aircraft attrition as well as the fact that production lines had closed in 1961. The 83d was inactivated to make up for attrition losses of F-101s in other units, but six aircraft remained at Hamilton as the
84th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron strength increased from 18 to 24 Voodoos. The 83d was reactivated at
Loring Air Force Base, Maine, in July 1971 when it absorbed the mission, personnel, and
Convair F-106 Delta Darts of the
27th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. The 83d was inactivated in June 1972 as part of the draw-down of Air Defense Command.
Training and weapons evaluation It was reactivated in 1972 as a
Northrop T-38 Talon Undergraduate Pilot Training squadron at
Webb Air Force Base, Texas. It was inactivated with the closing of Webb in 1977. It was reactivated at
Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida as a weapons evaluation squadron in 1983. ==Lineage==