page_title: 36th Fighter Squadron
section_title: Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: 36th Fighter Squadron / History / Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: PictionID:40972760 - Title:Curtiss YP-37 - Catalog:15_002765 - Filename:15_002765.tif - Image from the Charles Daniels Photo Collection album "US Army Aircraft."----PLEASE TAG this image with any information you know about it, so that we can permanently store this data with the original image file in our Digital Asset Management System.----SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
context_page_description: The 36th Fighter Squadron is part of the US Air Force's 51st Operations Group at Osan Air Base, South Korea. It operates the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft conducting air superiority missions. The squadron was first activated in 1917 as the 36th Aero Squadron and served in France during World War I, although the war ended before the unit saw combat. It has been continuously active since 1930 as a fighter squadron.
context_section_description: The squadron was reconstituted in 1923 as the 36th Pursuit Squadron.  Although inactive, it was originally allotted to the Sixth Corps Area.  In 1929 the squadron was designated as a "Regular Army Inactive" unit.  Although remaining inactive as a regular unit, officers of the Organized Reserves were assigned to the unit and performed summer training with the squadron at Kelly Field for the next few years.
  In October 1930 the squadron was once again activated at Selfridge Field, Michigan, where it was attached to the 1st Pursuit Group and equipped with various models of the Curtiss Hawk series of single engine biplane pursuit aircraft. By 1932, the squadron's primary aircraft became the Boeing P-12, although the squadron continued to fly the P-6 model of the Hawk.  As part of its mission to develop pursuit tactics, the squadron continued to fly a variety of other aircraft, notably including the Berliner-Joyce P-16 and Consolidated P-30 two-seat fighters.  Training of fighter pilots and testing of tactics continued after 1932 when the squadron moved to Langley Field, Virginia, where it was assigned to the 8th Pursuit Group.
  In 1934, following a Congressional investigation of how air mail contracts had been awarded by the United States Postal Service, President Franklin D. Roosevelt cancelled all existing air mail contracts and assigned the duty of flying the mail to the Air Corps.  The squadron began flying its P-12s on air mail routes, but they proved unsuitable for the work, lacking instruments to fly at night or in adverse weather.  Moreover, they could only carry about 50 lbs of mail, and with the mail load, the planes were tail heavy and difficult to fly.  The P-12s were withdrawn from the project within a week, although the larger observation aircraft continued to fly mail until May, when new air mail contracts were awarded.
  The P-30, along with the arrival of Curtiss YP-37s in 1938 marked a significant change in the squadron's equipment, the transition from fabric-covered biplanes to all metal monoplanes.  By 1939, the squadron was flying Curtiss P-36 Hawks, which were quickly replaced by the more powerful Curtiss P-40 Warhawks.  As the Air Corps expanded in 1940, the squadron moved to Mitchel Field, New York, and was located there when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred in December 1941.
caption: Curtiss YP-37
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