page_title: 319th Fighter Interceptor Training Squadron
section_title: Return to the United States
hierarchical_section_title: 319th Fighter Interceptor Training Squadron / History / Air Defense Operations / Return to the United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Lockheed F-104A-20-LO Starfighter 56-0808 of the 319th FIS, Homestead AFB, Florida 1964
context_page_description: The 319th Fighter Interceptor Training Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with Aerospace Defense Command's Interceptor Weapons School at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, where it was inactivated on 30 November 1977.
context_section_description: The squadron returned to the United States in 1954 to Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana and in March 1956 received F-94Cs. The squadron transitioned into F-89J Scorpions in the fall of 1957 and in February 1960 into Convair F-106 Delta Darts. 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 Hulman Field at the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  ADC decided to make its deployed fighter unit at Homestead Air Force Base permanent and equip it with Lockheed F-104A Starfighters because of the F-104's superior fighter on fighter performance. ADC had released all its F-104s to the Air National Guard in 1960 because its fire control system was not sophisticated enough to make it an all weather interceptor. However, the lack of all weather capability was not a factor in south Florida because Cuba lacked a bomber force. The Air Force withdrew F-104s from the 157th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at McEntire Air National Guard Base to equip the Homestead squadron.
  In March 1963 the 319th was moved on paper to Homestead, and on 15 April, assumed an alert posture with F-104As. These planes replaced a detachment of F-102s from the 325th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron that had been at Homestead since the Cuban missile crisis. 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. The F-104A was armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles only. In 1964, to improve its capability against the expected threat, the 319th's F-104s began to be equipped with M-61 Vulcan cannons. During the period when the squadron's planes were being modified, the 479th Tactical Fighter Wing deployed F-104Cs, which were already armed with the M-61, to augment the alert force at Homestead.
  These ADC F-104As remained in service for several years. From late 1967, 26 aircraft of the 319th FIS were retrofitted with the more powerful J79-GE-19, rated at 17,900 lb. static thrust with afterburner, which was the same type of engine fitted to the F-104S version developed for Italy. The last active duty USAF squadron to operate the F-104A, the 319th was inactivated in December 1969.
  In July 1971 the squadron was reactivated at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana, replacing the 71st FIS with F-106s. Shortly thereafter on 30 April 1972, the squadron was inactivated.
caption: 319th F-104A at Patrick AFB[note 3]
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