The group was first activated in 1942 at Morris Field, North Carolina as the 337th Fighter Group. During World War II it acted as a Replacement Training Unit for fighter pilots. The group was disbanded in 1944 in a major reorganization of Army Air Forces training units.
The 337th was activated again in 1955, when it replaced the 503d Air Defense Group at Portland International Airport as part of Air Defense Command (ADC)'s Project Arrow, which was designed to revive fighter units that had served during World War II and replace ADC's post-war units. It provided air defense for the Pacific northwest until it was inactivated in 1966, earning two Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards. The commander at Portland had been Lt. Col. George W. White, who had previously been with the 503d Air Defense Group, and who died during his command at 43 years of age, in August 1957.[2]
In January 2005 the Training Aircraft Systems Group was activated as part of the Air Force Materiel Command Transformation, which replaced traditional procurement offices with wings, groups and squadrons. In May 2006 the two groups were consolidated and the consolidated unit named the 337th Aeronautical Systems Group. In 2008, the unit was inactivated and its squadrons reassigned to the 877th Aeronautical Systems Group.
Two weeks later, the group and the 98th Squadron moved to Drew Field, near Tampa, Florida.[1][3] The 303d Squadron joined them later that month, while the 304th moved to the Tampa Bay Area, but to Pinellas Army Air Field, on the other side of the bay.[4][5] The group operated as a Replacement Training Unit (RTU), with the Warhawk.[1] RTUs were oversized units which trained individual pilots or aircrews.[7]
P-51B of a training unit in the Tampa Bay area[note 2]
In January 1943 the group and the squadrons at Drew Field moved to Sarasota Army Air Field, where the following month the group added a fourth squadron, the 440th Fighter Squadron. In August, the 440th joined the 304th at Pinellas and the group maintained a split operation at Sarasota and Pinellas until it was disbanded.[1][3][4][5][8] The group transitioned to North American P-51 Mustangs in early 1944.[1]
However, the Army Air Forces (AAF) was finding that standard military units, which were based on relatively inflexible tables of organization were not proving to be well adapted to the training mission. Accordingly, it adopted a more functional system in which each base was organized into a separate numbered unit.[9] The group and its squadrons were disbanded in May 1944.[1] The 336th AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Fighter) assumed the mission of the group at Sarasota,[10] while the 341st AAF Base Unit (Replacement Training Unit, Fighter) took over the group's equipment at Pinellas.[11]
Cold War
F-89H Scorpion[note 3]337th Fighter Group F-102 at Portland International Airport[note 4]
During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Continental Air Defense Command directed the group to place all its interceptors on five-minute alert. Unlike most ADC groups, however, the group did not disperse part of its strength to other bases. The increased alert posture was maintained through mid-November, when CONAD returned units to their normal alert status, except for those under the control of its 32d Region, which controlled air defense in the Southeastern United States.[21][22]
Although the number of ADC interceptor squadrons remained almost constant in the early 1960s, attrition (and the fact that production lines closed in 1961) caused a gradual drop in the number of planes assigned to a squadron, from 24 to typically 18 by 1964. The force reduction continued, finally resulting in a reduction in the number of interceptor units, and the group was inactivated in the spring of 1966.[1][23] In 1985 the group was redesignated the 337th Tactical Fighter Group, although it remained inactive.[24]
Systems development
In 2005, Air Force Materiel Command AFMC formed the Training Aircraft Systems Group as part of the AFMC Transformation initiative, which replaced traditional project offices with wings, groups, and squadrons. In 2006 this new organization was consolidated with the 327th and became the 337th Aeronautical Systems Group.[25] In 2007, the group's Foreign Military Sales (FMS) team oversaw the effort to provide the Iraqi Air Force with Cessna 172 training aircraft in order to resume flying operations[26] and also sought vendors for Counterinsurgency (COIN) aircraft for Iraq.[27] The group was inactivated in 2008 and its subordinate units were transferred to the 77th Aeronautical Systems Wing's 877th Aeronautical Systems Group.[28]
Lineage
327th Fighter Group
Constituted as 337th Fighter Group (Single Engine) on 16 July 1942
Activated on 23 July 1942
Disbanded on 1 May 1944
Reconstituted and redesignated 337th Fighter Group (Air Defense), on 20 June 1955
Buss, Lydus H.(ed), Sturm, Thomas A., Volan, Denys, and McMullen, Richard F., History of Continental Air Defense Command and Air Defense Command July to December 1955, Directorate of Historical Services, Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, CO, 1956.
Goss, William A (1955). "The Organization and its Responsibilities, Chapter 2 The AAF". In Craven, Wesley F; Cate, James L (eds.). The Army Air Forces in World War II: Men & Planes. Vol. VI. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. LCCN48003657. OCLC704158.
McMullen, Richard F. (1964) "The Fighter Interceptor Force 1962-1964" ADC Historical Study No. 27, Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, CO (Confidential, declassified 22 March 2000)
NORAD/CONAD Participation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Historical Reference Paper No. 8, Directorate of Command History Continental Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, CO, 1 Feb 63 (Top Secret NOFORN, declassified 9 March 1996)
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