#1643CU 313 TFS F-16C Fighting Falcon Squadron Print
Description
Squadron Prints Lithograph No. 1643CU - 84-1313 '313 TFS', F-16C Fighting Falcon, 313th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 50th Tactical Fighter Wing, Hahn Air Base, Germany.
Constituted as the 313th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) on 21 January 1942, the unit was activated a few weeks later, on 9 February, at Key Field, Mississippi. Operating the P-40 Warhawk, the unit soon moved to Orlando Air Base in Florida to conduct training in tactics and air defense for the Fighter Command School. It was redesignated as the 313th Fighter Squadron on 15 May 1942. It transitioned to the P-47 Thunderbolt in 1943 and it was with these aircraft that the 50th Fighter Group, including the 313th FS, arrived in the European Theater of Operations on 5 April 1944. Initially the squadron was based at Lymington, England, but within a few months the 313th FS found itself in France and later Germany. After the war, the squadron was on the move again, this time to La Junta Army Air Field, Colorado where it was inactivated on 7 November 1945. In 1976 the 313th FS returned to Germany where it was reactivated at Hahn Air Base on 15 November 1976 as part of the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing. Now a Tactical Fighter Squadron, the 313th flew the McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II. After only five years as the first squadron at Hahn, the Phantoms were withdrawn as it transitioned to the General Dynamics F-16A Fighting Falcon. The first of the new aircraft arrived in December 1981 and by mid-1982 the 313th FS had received its full complement, becoming fully operational on 14 June 1982. The primary role of the squadron was air defense, however the air to ground role was also part of its duties. During 1988, the early versions of the Fighting Falcon were disappearing from theater, only to be replaced by the newer and more capable F-16C. When the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the USAF decided to reduce the number of fighter aircraft (and squadrons) in Europe. One such unit was the 50th TFW and its three Fighter Squadrons which was inactivated in December 1991, bringing to an end fifteen years of operations in Europe by the 313th Tactical Fighter Squadron.