page_title: 4th Operations Group
section_title: Cold War
hierarchical_section_title: 4th Operations Group / History / Cold War
caption_attribution_description: English: Five North American F-86A Sabre fighters of the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing on the flight line at Suwon, South Korea, in June 1951. The F-86As were F-86A-5-NA: 49-1158 was damaged by a MiG-15 on 23 September 1951; 49-1276 of the 336th FIS was shot down by a MiG-15 on 22 June 1951; 49-1251; 49-1261; 49-1236 of the 334th FIS was shot down by a MiG-15 on 24 October 1951.
context_page_description: The 4th Operations Group is the flying component of the 4th Fighter Wing, assigned to the United States Air Force Air Combat Command. The group is stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
  The 4 OG is a direct descendant of the World War II 4th Fighter Group, the United States Army Air Forces VIII Fighter Command unit formed from the members of the Royal Air Force Eagle Squadrons. These fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force formed prior to the United States entry into World War II with volunteer pilots from the United States.
  When the United States entered the war these units, and the American pilots in them, were transferred to the United States Eighth Air Force, with the RAF Nos. 71, 121, and 133 Squadrons becoming the 334th, 335th and 336th Fighter Squadrons of the 4th Fighter Group, 65th Fighter Wing of the VIII Fighter Command.
  Today, the 4 OG consists of two operational fighter squadrons, the 335th and 336th; two fighter training squadrons, the 333d and 334th; and two support squadrons.
context_section_description: The 4th Fighter Group was inactivated at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, on 10 November 1945. The unit was reactivated at Selfridge Field, Michigan, 9 September 1946, as the United States began to rearm due to Cold War pressures.
  On 15 August 1947, under the Wing/Base (Hobson) reorganization plan, the 4th Fighter Wing was formed, and the 4th Fighter Group became its subordinate operational flying component. Following a period of training with F-80 Shooting Star aircraft, the 4th Fighter Group transitioned to F-86 Sabre jets in March 1949, just in time for advanced training and entry into the Korean War.
  In December 1950, the 4th Fighter Wing's flying component (now the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group) was the first unit to commit F-86 Sabre jets to that conflict. Lt Col Bruce H. Hinton shot down a MiG-15 on 17 December during the first Sabre mission of the war. Four days later, Lt Col John C. Meyer, a World War II ace, led a flight of eight sabres against 15 MiGs in the first major all-jet fighter battle in history. The flight downed six MiGs without sustaining any losses.
  By the end of the war airmen of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group had destroyed 502 enemy aircraft (54 percent of the total), becoming the top fighter unit of the Korean War. Twenty-four pilots achieved ace status.  With the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, the group moved to Japan following the Korean armistice in 1953, continuing training and tours to Korea. The group was inactivated on 8 December 1957 with its component squadrons assigned directly to the wing as the Air Force reorganized its wings into the tri-deputate structure.
caption: 4th Fighter-Interceptor Group North American F-86 Sabres, South Korea, 1951
exif: {}