page_title: 157th Fighter Squadron
section_title: Air Defense
hierarchical_section_title: 157th Fighter Squadron / History / South Carolina Air National Guard / Air Defense
caption_attribution_description: English: 157th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Convair F-102A-60-CO Delta Dagger 56-1048 Was retired to MASDC as FJ0362 Mar 6, 1975
context_page_description: The 157th Fighter Squadron is a unit of the South Carolina Air National Guard 169th Fighter Wing located at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, Columbia, South Carolina. The 157th FS is one of the few Air National Guard squadrons to operate the HARM Targeting System-equipped F-16C Block 52 Fighting Falcon, also known as the F-16CJ.
context_section_description: After returning from West Germany, the squadron was re-formed at Congaree Air Base and the South Carolina Air National Guard assumed an air defense mission.  Due to the lack of jet aircraft in the United States (most were being used in the Korean War), the 157th was re-equipped with very long-range F-51H Mustangs and the unit was allocated to the Eastern Air Defense Force, Air Defense Command (ADC).   After the Korean Armistice in 1953, the 157th began to receive F-86A Sabre jets, pressed into the daylight interceptor mission by ADC.   In 1954, the Mustangs were reaching the end of their service life, and ADC supplied the 157th with some F-80C Shooting Stars as an interim replacement.
  On 5 September 1957, the 157th Fighter-Bomber Squadron was authorized to expand to a group level, and the 169th Fighter-Interceptor Group was established by the National Guard Bureau. The 157th was re-designated as a Fighter-Interceptor squadron and became the group's flying squadron. Other squadrons assigned into the group were the 169th Headquarters, 169th Material Squadron (Maintenance), 169th Combat Support Squadron, and the 169th USAF Dispensary.
   Shortly afterwards Air Defense Command upgraded the new 169th FIG to the all-weather/day-night F-86L Sabre Interceptor aircraft.
  In 1960 ADC released all its F-104A Starfighters to the ANG because the F-104 fire control system was not sophisticated enough to make it an all-weather interceptor. The 157th was one of three selected ANG units to receive the Starfighter Mach-2 interceptors. The  "Swamp Foxes", as a result of the national recognition as one of the best air defense units in the nation, were chosen to fly the new high performance jet fighter.
  Brigadier General Barnie B. McEntire, Jr., the first commander of the South Carolina ANG and its first general officer died 25 May 1961, when he courageously piloted his malfunctioning F-104 fighter jet away from populated areas near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to crash into the Susquehanna River. On 1 October 1961, then-Governor Ernest F. Hollings presided over the ceremony renaming the heroic wing commander's South Carolina installation from Congaree Air Base to McEntire Air National Guard Base.
  The 169th FIG was called into active service a second time in November 1961 as the construction of the infamous "Berlin Wall" pushed the world to the brink of war. Within a month after mobilization, 750 personnel and 22 157th FIS F-104 aircraft were in place at Morón Air Base, Spain as the unit took up flying daily air defense patrols as part of the NATO air defense force in Western Europe. With world tension easing, the squadron returned home in August 1962.
  Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, ADC decided to make a permanent fighter unit at Homestead Air Force Base an F-104 unit because of its superior fighter-on-fighter performance.  The F-104's lack of an all-weather capability not a factor because Cuba lacked a bomber force. In June 1963 the F-104s were transferred back to the active-duty Air Force.   The South Carolina ANG was re-equipped with F-102A Delta Daggers, which became available because of Project Clearwater, which withdrew F-102s from overseas bases. The "Deuce", still a very potent interceptor, served with the 169th FIG until April 1975, when Aerospace Defense Command was reducing the USAF interceptor force as the threat of Soviet Bombers attacking the United States was deemed remote.
caption: 157th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Convair F-102A Delta Dagger, AF Ser. No. 56-1048, 1973.
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