The 14th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with the 53d Fighter Group at Sioux City Municipal Airport, Iowa, where it was inactivated on 1 April 1960. The squadron was first activated in 1941 as the 14th Fighter Squadron. It served in the air defense of the Panama Canal from 1942 until 1943, when it returned to the United States and was a training unit until it was disbanded in a general reorganization of Army Air Forces training units in the spring of 1944. From 1947 through 1949 the 14th served as an Air Reserve unit.
Activated in early 1941 as part of the Southeast Air District, was equipped with a series of pursuit aircraft, stationed at Tallahassee Airport with a mission of air defense of Florida. After the Pearl Harbor Attack, The squadron was one of several hastily deployed to the Panama Canal Zone for the defense of the canal with the United States entry into World War II. Deployed on 2 January 1942, stationed at Chame Airfield, Panama operating Bell P-39D Airacobras. By 16 February, the Squadron had 12 P-39D's and not fewer than 26 pilots, but of these, only four had more than 12 months experience. Following its initial encampment at Chame No. 1, the Squadron moved to the nearby Chame No. 2 on 1 April 1942. The unit was redesignated as the 14th Fighter Squadron on 15 May 1942 in keeping with the USAAF scheme at the time. Following the perceived end of the emergency need for the unit, it returned to the United States in early 1943 where it became a P-47 Thunderbolt, later P-51 Mustang replacement training unit for III Fighter Command. Inactivated on 1 May 1944 as part of a reorganization of training units.
Reserve Duty
Reactivated by Continental Air Command in 1947 as a reserve Troop Carrier Squadron at Pittsburgh Airport Pennsylvania. Undetermined if manned or equipped, inactivated due to budget reductions in 1949.
Reactivated in 1953 as part of Air Defense Command as an air defense squadron, equipped with F-86D Sabre Interceptors and initially being assigned to Sioux City Municipal Airport, Iowa with a mission for the air defense the Great Plains. In 1957 began re-equipping with the North American F-86L Sabre, an improved version of the F-86D which incorporated the Semi Automatic Ground Environment, or SAGE computer-controlled direction system for intercepts. The service of the F-86L destined to be quite brief, since by the time the last F-86L conversion was delivered, the type was already being phased out in favor of supersonic interceptors. Inactivated in 1960 as part of the phaseout of the F-86D from active ADC service.
Lineage
Constituted as the 14th Pursuit Squadron on 20 November 1940
Reconstituted on 3 June 1947
Redesignated 14th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron on 23 March 1953
