Hobby Master Archive

The 57th Pursuit Squadron was activated in January 1941 and became 57th FS in May 1942. In 1949 it was inactivated only to be reactivated at Presque Isle, Aroostook County, Maine in March 1953 as the 57th FIS the “Black Knights of Aroostook”. In November 1954 the 57th moved to Keflavik, Iceland where they became the “Black Knights of Keflavik” to avoid confusion with the 526th FIS “Black Knights” based in Germany. In late 1962 the 57th FIS traded their F-89Ds for the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger. The squadron flew the F-102 mostly on intercept missions against unannounced Russian aircraft. On September 15, 1972 the squadron intercepted a Russian Bear and recorded its 1000th intercept. In 1973 the 57th FIS re-equipped with F-4Cs and in the summer of 1978 converted to F-4Es. The 57th FIS was inactivated on March 1, 1995.