159th Fighter Squadron

The 159th Fighter Squadron (159 FS) is a unit of the Florida Air National Guard's 125th Fighter Wing (125 FW) located at Jacksonville Air National Guard Base at Jacksonville International Airport, Florida. The 159th is currently equipped with the F-35A Lightning II as of 2025.

The squadron flies the single seat F-35A aircraft in the air superiority/air dominance role. As part of the Florida Air National Guard, the 159 FS and 125 FW report to the First Air Force (1 AF) at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida and are operationally gained by the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC). The squadron's main body is home based at Jacksonville ANGB but is and also maintains a permanent rotational alert detachment at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida.

The mission of the 159 FS is to provide air defense for the southeastern United States, as directed by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), in an area stretching from offshore of Charleston, South Carolina to the southern tip of Florida and across the Florida panhandle. In addition, the 159 FS provides the Continental NORAD Region (CONR) commander with a rapid armed response to invasions of the sovereign airspace of the United States and to be able to respond with appropriate defensive measures against all hostile actions directed at the people and property of the United States. The squadron, as part of its parent wing, is also available to other combat commanders for forward deployment in order to perform air superiority/air dominance missions in other theaters outside of the United States.

Established in late 1942 as a U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) P-47 Thunderbolt fighter squadron, the squadron trained under the I Fighter Command in the mid-Atlantic states. The 159th also flew air defense missions as part of the Philadelphia Fighter Wing until it was deployed to the European Theater of Operations (ETO), being assigned to VIII Fighter Command in England in June 1943.

The unit served primarily as an escort organization, covering the penetration, attack and withdrawal of USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator bomber formations that the USAAF sent against targets on the European continent. The squadron also engaged in counter-air patrols, fighter sweeps, strafing and dive-bombing missions. It attacked such targets as German and German-occupied airdromes, marshalling yards, missile sites, industrial areas, ordnance depots, oil refineries, trains and highways. During its operations, the unit participated in the assault against the Luftwaffe and the German aircraft industry during the Big Week, 20–25 February 1944, and the attack on transportation facilities prior to the Normandy invasion on 6 June 1944 and support of the invasion forces thereafter, including the Saint-Lô breakout in July 1944.

The squadron supported the airborne attack in the Netherlands in September 1944 and upgraded to the P-51 Mustang aircraft in October. It then deployed to Chievres Airdrome (ALG A-84), Belgium between February and April 1945 flying tactical ground support missions during the airborne assault across the Rhine. The unit returned to England and flew its last combat mission on 20 April 1945. It was demobilized during the summer of 1945 in England and inactivated in the United States as a paper unit in October 1945.

At the conclusion of World War II, work began to organize an Air National Guard unit for Florida. A National Guard Bureau document dated 16 March 1946, gave states permission to request an Army Air Forces unit allotment. Months later, Florida accepted the 159th Fighter Squadron with an authorized strength of 50 officers and 303 enlisted men. Governor Millard F. Caldwell formally accepted the unit on 30 August 1946, and full federal recognition was granted 9 February 1947.

A facility for housing the units became available in temporary World War II buildings on the west side of the Thomas Cole Imeson Airport in Jacksonville, Florida. Upon the arrival of the unit's first aircraft, the P-51D Mustang, (later redesignated the F-51D in 1947) at Imeson Airport, the 159th became the first operational Air National Guard unit in Florida. With the establishment of the U.S. Air Force as an independent service in September 1947, the 159th became a USAF organization. During its second year of operation, the FLANG became one of the first six Air National Guard squadrons in the United States equipped with jet aircraft. The conversion from the F-51D Mustang to the F-80C Shooting Star became official on 1 August 1948, when the unit was re-designated the 159th Fighter Squadron, Jet Propelled (159 FSJ).