page_title: 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: 432d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Northrop F-89H-5-NO Scorpion 54-409 1957 Stationed at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Minnesota. At Indian Springs Auxillary Airfield, Nevada armed with a "Genie" nuclear missile. Aircraft fired the nuclear weapon as the "John Shot" of Operation Plumb Bob, 19 July 1959
context_page_description: The 53d Weapons Evaluation Group is a United States Air Force unit that reports to the 53d Wing. It is stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The unit is part of Air Combat Command.
  During World War II the unit, then known as the 475th Fighter Group, operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater. The 475th Fighter Group was perhaps the best known of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning groups in the theater since it contained among its personnel the top scoring flying aces in the Pacific--Richard I. Bong and Thomas B. McGuire, Jr., both Medal of Honor recipients.
  By the war's end, no fewer than 38 other pilots from the 475th had achieved ace status while flying exclusively P-38s. The group's commander for 20 months, Colonel Charles H. MacDonald, scored 27 kills in his famous aircraft, the "Putt Putt Maru" and was the seventh-ranking American ace.
  The group remained in the Far East until 1949 as part of the occupation forces.
  From 1955 to 1956 the group was an Air Defense Command interceptor group, stationed at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. It was inactivated in 1958 when the United States Air Force withdrew its regular units from this civilian field.
context_section_description: In 1955, Air Defense Command (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. As part of this project, on 18 August 1955, the 475th Fighter Group (Air Defense) was activated at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, where it assumed the mission, personnel and equipment of the 514th Air Defense Group, which was simultaneously inactivated. Because Project Arrow was also intended to unite squadrons with their historical groups, the 432d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron moved on paper from Truax Field, Wisconsin to join the group at Minneapolis, where it replaced the 337th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, which departed for McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey. The group also assumed host responsibility for regular USAF units at Minneapolis and was assigned several support units to carry out this responsibility.
  The group took over the 514th's airborne interception radar equipped and Mighty Mouse rocket armed Northrop F-89D Scorpions. By June 1956, the group was flying a mix of F-89Ds and F-89H's.  The H model could carry AIM-4 Falcons in addition to the unguided Mighty Mice.  Two months later the group was completely equipped with H models. In the late 1950s, ADC began withdrawing from civilian airports, partly because of security concerns arising from the nuclear capability its interceptor aircraft were beginning to acquire.  In January 1958, the group and its subordinate units were inactivated.
caption: F-89H of the group's 432d Fighter-Interceptor Squadron during Operation Plumbbob
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