The 23rd Fighter Group (23 FG) is a United States Air Force unit. It is assigned to the 23rd Wing and stationed at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia.
The 23rd Fighter Group was established in World War II as the 23rd Pursuit Group of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). Redesignated the 23rd Fighter Group before its activation, the group was formed in China on 4 July 1942, as a component of the China Air Task Force and received a small cadre of volunteer personnel from the simultaneously disbanded 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) – the "Flying Tigers" of the Chinese Air Force.
To carry on the traditions and commemorate the history of the AVG, aircraft of the USAF 23rd Fighter Group carry the same "Shark Teeth" nose art of the AVG's Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, along with the "FT" (Flying Tiger) tail code. The 23rd Fighter Group's aircraft are the only United States Air Force aircraft currently authorized to carry this distinctive and historical aircraft marking.
Overview
Currently based at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, the group is assigned as one of two operations groups of the 23rd Wing at Moody. The other group at Moody is the 347th Rescue Group. Both organizations serve as part of the Fifteenth Air Force and Air Combat Command. The 23rd Fighter Group's primary missions are forward air control, close air support, air interdiction and combat search and rescue operations.
The group has two operational squadrons assigned: the 74th and the 75th Fighter Squadrons both flying A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft.
History
World War II
By 15 June 1942, under orders from Tenth Air Force, an advance cadre of pilots and aircraft had proceeded over the Hump to Kunming, China, for combat familiarization. Without ceremony, the 23rd Fighter Group was activated 4 July 1942, marking the first such activation of a United States fighter unit on a field of battle in World War II.
Claire L. Chennault, meanwhile, had been recalled to active duty with the rank of brigadier general and placed at the head of the China Air Task Force (later to grow into Fourteenth Air Force). The 23rd Fighter Group became a component of the Task Force and was assigned three squadrons, the 74th, 75th, and 76th Fighter Squadrons.
The group inherited the mission of the American Volunteer Group "Flying Tigers" (AVG). Five of Chennault's staff officers, five pilots and 19 ground crewmen entered the United States Army Air Forces and became members of the 23rd Fighter Group. Approximately 25 Flying Tiger pilots, still in civilian status, volunteered to extend their contracts for two weeks to train the new group following the disbanding of their organization. The original aircraft of the group were a mixture of Curtiss P-40 Warhawks from a batch of 50 sent to China for the AVG between January and June 1942, and a follow-up shipment of 68 P-40Es transferred from the 51st Fighter Group in India and flown over the Hump by personnel to be assigned to the 23rd, also mostly from the 51st Group.
Others from the ranks of the original Flying Tigers left China when their contracts expired, although some returned to duty later with the Army Air Forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. In addition to inheriting operational responsibilities from the AVG, the 23rd Fighter Group also benefited from the knowledge and experience of the AVG pilots, and took on the nickname of the disbanded unit.
Col. Robert L. Scott Jr., already in India as a commander of the Hump operation, became the first commander of the 23rd Fighter Group. He would later author the military classic, "God Is My Co-Pilot." On the very first day of its activation, the 23rd Fighter Group engaged three successive waves of enemy aircraft and promptly recorded the destruction of five enemy aircraft with no losses to itself.