440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron

The 440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, stationed at Erding Air Station, West Germany. It was inactivated on 16 February 1959.

History
Activated in 1943 as a III Fighter Command P-51 Mustang Operational, later Replacement Training Unit. Inactivated in May 1944 with the end of RTU training.

Reactivated in 1953 as an F-86D Sabre Interceptor Squadron in West Germany, assigned to the 86th Fighter-Bomber Group at Landstuhl AB. Deployed to Erding Air Base in Bavaria, operating as a forward-deployed squadron near the Czechoslovakian border until inactivated with the withdrawal of the F-86D from West Germany in 1960.

Lineage

 * Constituted 440th Fighter Squadron 12 February 1943
 * Activated on 24 February 1943
 * Disbanded on 1 May 1944


 * Reconstituted, and redesignated 440th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, on 3 February 1953
 * Activated on 18 February 1953
 * Inactivated on 1 January 1960

Assignments

 * 337th Fighter Group, 24 February 1943 – 1 May 1944
 * 530th Air Defense Group, 18 February 1953
 * Twelfth Air Force
 * Attached to 86th Fighter-Bomber Wing, 1 July 1954


 * 7486th Air Defense (later Air Base) Group, 2 December 1954
 * 86th Fighter-Interceptor Group, 3 January 1956
 * 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, 8 March 1958 – 1 January 1960.

Stations

 * Sarasota Army Airfield, Florida, 24 February 1943
 * Pinellas Army Airfield, Florida, 15 April 1943 – 1 May 1944
 * Geiger Field, Washington, 18 February 1953
 * Landstuhl Air Base, West Germany, 4 July 1954
 * Erding Air Base, West Germany, 17 February 1956 – 31 December 1959.

Aircraft

 * P-40 Warhawk, 1943–1944
 * P-51 Mustang, 1944
 * F-86D Sabre Interceptor, 1953–1960