page_title: 31st Tactical Training Squadron
section_title: Air Defense
hierarchical_section_title: 31st Tactical Training Squadron / History / Air Defense
caption_attribution_description: English: 31st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron - Convair F-102A-50-CO Delta Dagger - 55-3440, served at Wurtsmith AFB from 12/21/56 to 09/10/57, photo taken at Wurtsmuth AFB, Michigan Photo caption calls this 56-1440, which according to USAF official records was never assigned to the 31st FIS, but much later to 18th FIS; 482nd FIS; 76th FIS; and 82nd FIS; transferred to PACAF. Additionally, the style of markings shown in the photograph was only applied to F-102A aircraft prior to 56-1317, the 534th production aircraft.
context_page_description: The 31st Tactical Training Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit. Its last assignment was with 31st Tactical Training Wing at Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, where it was inactivated on 9 May 1988.
  The squadron was first activated as the 31st Pursuit Squadron for the air defense of the Panama Canal shortly before the United States entered World War II. It served in this role until 1944 when the reduced threat to the canal and the Caribbean permitted its transfer to the United States, where it was inactivated. The squadron was reactivated a few months later as an element of the 412th Fighter Group, the first Army Air Forces unit equipped with jet fighters. It was inactivated in 1946 when the 412th group and its squadrons were replaced by elements of the 1st Fighter Group.
  In 1953, the squadron was activated as the 31st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, an air defense unit in the Pacific northwest. It was inactivated two years later in a major realignment of Air Defense Command fighter unit designations. It was again active in the air defense role from 1956 to 1958 in Michigan and Alaska.
context_section_description: The squadron was reactivated as the 31st Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, an element Air Defense Command at Larson Air Force Base, Washington in early 1953 and assigned to the 4702d Defense Wing. At Larson the squadron was equipped with Mighty Mouse rocket armed and airborne intercept radar equipped North American F-86D Sabre interceptors. The squadron was engaged in the air defense of the Pacific Northwest.  In the summer of 1955 ADC implemented Project Arrow, which was designed to bring back on the active list the fighter units which had compiled memorable records in the two world wars and associate them with their traditional headquarters. As a result, the mission, personnel and equipment of the 31st were transferred to the 322d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron IAW ADC "Project Arrow".
  The squadron was again reactivated in 1956 at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, Michigan and equipped with supersonic Convair F-102 Delta Daggers armed with the AIM-4 Falcon missile. The following year it moved to Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska Territory where it performed intercepts of intruding aircraft as part of Alaskan Air Command, arriving in Alaska. The squadron was inactivated in October 1958 and its aircraft were reassigned to the 317th Fighter Interceptor Squadron.
caption: 31st FIS F-102A[note 3]
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