482d Fighter - Interceptor Squadron The 482d Fighter - Interceptor Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit . Its last assignment was with Montgomery Air Defense Sector at Homestead Air Force Base , Florida in 1969 . During World War II the squadron was a replacement training unit until disbanded in 1944 when the Army Air Forces converted units in the US to Arny Air Force Base Units . It was reconstituted in 1955 and served as a fighter interceptor squadron until 1969 . History . World War II . Activated in 1943 as a IV Fighter Command P - 38 Lightning Replacement Training Unit ( RTU ) . Trained P - 38 pilots until March 1944 when it was disbanded as part of the switchover of numbered training units in the Zone of the Interior ( ZI ) ( Continental United States ) were re - designated as " Army Air Force Base Units " . At Grand Central Air Terminal , its parent 473d Fighter Group was replaced by the 402d Army Air Force Base Unit ( Replacement Training Unit , Fighter ) , the personnel and equipment of the 482d Fighter Squadron being designated as " Squadron A " . Cold War . The squadron was redesignated 482d Fighter - Interceptor Squadron ( FIS ) in 1955 and reactivated as an Air Defense Command ( ADC ) interceptor squadron . It performed the air defense mission over the Mid - Atlantic states with F - 102 Delta Dagger s . In April 1961 , ADC initiated Operation Southern Tip , deploying six Convair F - 102 Delta Dagger aircraft from its test and training unit at Tyndall AFB Florida to Homestead AFB , Florida in a two week test of a contingency plan to augment air defense forces in Southern Florida in face of the potential threat from an unfriendly Cuba . Two of the F - 102s were maintained on armed five - minute alert status . However , on 17 April the Bay of Pigs Invasion occurred , and the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed that Southern Tip continue indefinitely . However , the impact of the extended deployment on the training and testing mission led to the 482d FIS assuming the mission in July with four of its aircraft . Due to repairs of the Homestead runway , these aircraft were based at Miami International Airport until January 1962 . This commitment was expanded to 18 aircraft in October 1962 during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis . As the crisis abated in November , the Homestead defense mission was assumed by the 325th Fighter - Interceptor Squadron . The 482d resumed its Florida defense mission on 15 June 1963 , when it deployed six of its F - 102s to Naval Air Station Key West to replace Marine F - 4B fighters that had deployed there in 1962 . The 482d was also tasked to maintain the capability to expand its Key West presence to 20 fighters in the event of another Cuban crisis . This capability was tested in 1964 in Exercise Arawak Spear . In July 1965 the squadron moved to Homestead AFB , Florida , where it flew Lockheed F - 104 Starfighter s . In addition to the single seat F - 104A the squadron received the two - seat , dual - control , combat trainer F - 104B . The performance of the F - 104B was almost identical to that of the F - 104A , but the lower internal fuel capacity reduced its effective range considerably . It was decided after the Cuban Missile Crisis to establish permanently assigned interceptors to Homestead to counter any air intrusion by Soviet / Cuban fighters . These ADC F - 104As remained in service for several years until inactivated in June 1969 with the phaseout of the F - 104 . References . Bibliography . Further Reading