426th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron The 426th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force fighter squadron . Its last assignment was with the 405th Tactical Training Wing , being inactivated at Luke Air Force Base , Arizona , on 19 November 1990 . During World War II , the 426th Night Fighter Squadron was a night fighter squadron assigned to Tenth Air Force in India , and Fourteenth Air Force in China . It was reactivated in 1970 as a tactical fighter Replacement Training Unit ( RTU ) At Luke AFB . History . World War II . The 426th Night Fighter Squadron was formed at Hammer Field , California , where they trained . The squadron also flew training missions in the Bakersfield area . With their training as a unit completed , the 426th NFS packed their bags and left California ' s sunny San Joaquin Valley in mid - June 1944 . Their first stop was Newport News , Virginia , where they boarded the USS General A . E . Anderson for India . Arriving on 8 August , they boarded a train that took them to their next stop , Calcutta . Their destination , for a while at least , was Camp Kanchapara , about forty miles from Calcutta . They would have quite a bit of time on their hands , because it wasn ' t until late September that their P - 61 Black Widow s arrived by ship in Calcutta . During this period , some of the ground echelon was sent to Sylhet ( now part of Bangladesh ) , on temporary duty with a combat cargo unit . When P - 61s were unloaded on the Calcutta docks , these partially disassembled craft were transported to Barrackpore where they were reassembled by the Air Service Command . Once checked out , the 426th NFS took possession of the planes and flew them to Madhaiganj Air Base . During the next couple of weeks , the planes would be rotated to Ondal , where Air Service Command modified them ( one of the modifications being additional radio equipment ) . 5 October marked the start of the 426th ' s combat deployment ; four aircraft were sent to Chengtu , China , Upon their arrival the mission of the 426th NFS was night defense for the Twentieth Air Force B - 29 Superfortress es based in the Chengtu area . By the end of October 1944 the 426th NFS was at full strength at Chengtu , China . On 27 October , a detachment of the 426th initiated operations out of Kunming , China , where Fourteenth Air Force was headquartered . Bomber escort missions continued until February 1945 , when Japanese night fighter flying against the B - 29s nearly ceased . More and more , the squadron flew night intruder missions . The 426th started staging out of Ankang , Liangshan , and Sian ( now known as Xi ' an ) , China , from which they attacked communication , motor transport and railway lines until the end of the war . In September 1945 , the 426th returned to India , where some of the squadron left from Karachi ( now part of Pakistan ) and others from Calcutta , India for their return voyage home . The squadron was inactivated on 8 November 1945 . Cold War . In 1970 , the 426th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron was assigned to the 58th Tactical Fighter Training Wing at Luke AFB , Arizona from 18 January 1970 until being reassigned to the 405th Tactical Training Wing on 1 January 1981 . Squadron carried tail code " LA " . The squadron was initially equipped with the F - 100D Super Sabre s that it inherited from the provisional 4515th Combat Crew Training Squadron . It received McDonnell F - 4C Phantom II s in August 1971 , with aircraft carrying a blue fin cap . In 1981 received F - 15A / B Eagles , mission was changed to train interceptor pilots for Air Defense , Tactical Air Command ( ADTAC ) with the F - 15 , which was beginning to replace the F - 106 Delta Dart in the air defense mission of the United States . F - 15s carried red tail stripes by 1983 and added a yellow centered delta shape . Flew some F - 15D models in 1989 , was inactivated in 1990 when the air defense training on the F - 15 was moved the phased transfer to Tyndall AFB , Florida and to First Air Force .