San Francisco Fighter Wing


The San Francisco Fighter Wing is a disbanded United States Air Force unit. The wing provided air defense of the central Pacific coast and trained fighter units and pilots. It was stationed at San Francisco, California, where it was disbanded on 7 June 1944.

History

Along the Pacific coast, Western Defense Command established a "vital air defense zone", extending from the coast approximately inland and to sea. To carry out this mission, Fourth Air Force organized regional air defense wings in August 1942. The San Francisco Air Defense Wing was organized to provide air defense for the central Pacific coast area and train fighter groups and pilots.
The Army Air Forces later found that standard military units like the wing, whose manning was based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not well adapted to the training mission, even more so to the replacement mission. Accordingly, the Army Air Forces adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit, with similar flexible units established for headquarters.
In this reorganization, the wing's mission, equipment and personnel were transferred to the 411th AAF Base Unit on 1 April 1944, The wing remained a paper unit until 7 June, when the 411th was simultaneously redescribed as the 411th AAF Base Unit. In 1946, the 411th became the 411th AAF Base Unit. It was discontinued on 1 January 1947.

Lineage

  • Constituted as the San Francisco Air Defense Wing on 6 August 1942

Assignments

Components

Stations