#1634 495th FS, F-35A Lightning II Squadron Print
Description
Squadron Prints Lithograph No. 1634 - 19-5495 'LN', F-35A Lightning II, 495th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, England.
The 495th Fighter Squadron’s distinguished history began in 1941. Constituted as the 9th Reconnaissance Squadron (Light) on 20 November 1941 and activated on 15 January 1941 under the command of the 48th Bombardment Group, the squadron served as a training unit in Savannah, Georgia, preparing B-18 Bolo and A-20 Havoc air and maintenance crews for combat. On 26 May 1941, the unit moved to Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma and was later redesignated as the 88th Bombardment Squadron (Light) on 14 August. The squadron returned to Savannah, Georgia in 1942, where they conducted antisubmarine patrols in the American theatre from March to April. Over the next two years, the squadron relocated multiple times across the United States, serving as a replacement training unit in Key Field, Mississippi (28 June 1942) and William Northern Field, Tennessee (20 August 1943). During this period, the unit was redesignated the 88th Bombardment Squadron (Dive) on 28 August 1942 and, later, the 495th Fighter-Bomber Squadron on 10 August 1943. Aircrews from the 495th Fighter-Bomber Squadron flew the P-39 Airacobra (1942-1944), P-40 Warhawk (1942-1944), A-35 Vengence (1943), and A-24 Banshee (1943) until their reassignment to Galveston Army Air Field, Texas in March 1944. In Texas, the replacement-training unit operated the P-47 Thunderbolt under the command of the 407th Fighter-Bomber Group until the squadron’s deactivation on 1 April 1944. Thirty years later, Headquarters, United States Air Forces in Europe reactivated the unit and redesignated it the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron (495 TFS) on 1 April 1977. Now stationed at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, the 495 TFS operated the F-111 Aardvark. Employing the F-111’s precision strike capabilities, Airmen from the 495 TFS participated in the air raid on Tripoli, Libya in April 1986, where they struck terrorist facilities as a part of Operation ELDORADO CANYON. With the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the squadron, once again, stood ready to execute precision air power. From September 1990 to March 1991, the unit deployed in support of Operations DESERT SHIELD (the defense of Saudi Arabia) and DESERT STORM (the liberation and defense of Kuwait). Following the end of the Gulf War and the Air Force’s restructure to the objective-wing construct, the unit was deactivated on 13 December 1991. On 1 October 2021, the 495 Fighter Squadron was officially reactivated as United States Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces in Africa’s (USAFE-AFAFRICA’s) first, fifth-generation fighter squadron. Nicknamed the Valkyries, the 495 FS has returned to the stage and is once again ready to be called upon for precision airpower as USAFE-AFAFRICA’s premiere, fifth-generation fighter squadron. “MALA IPSA NOVA”