80 years ago this week, a USAAF 421st Night Fighter Squadron Northrop P-61B-20-NO Black Widow (SN 43-8317) seen landing at recently liberated and expanded Puerto Princesa Airfield, Tacloban, Leyte, 8 February 1945. Official caption: “One of the first 13th AAF Black Widows to arrive at Puerto Princesa buzzes the strip preparatory to peeling up, dropping his wheels, and landing.”
Check out that luxurious control tower! While I cannot find the ultimate end of #317, Baugher notes that of the 83 P-61B-20-NOs produced, at least 22 were lost or written off, with the leading causes primarily due to accidents while landing or mid-air accidents. Night fighters were tough on crews. Of note, this photo was published in the August 145 issue of Air Force magazine. (U.S. Air Force Number 58348AC) National Archives Identifier 204949312
Constituted as 421st Night Fighter Squadron on 30 April 1943, the 421st stood up stateside at the Kissimmee AAFld in Florida– the future home of Disney– with troublesome Douglas P-70 Havoc night fighters before shipping out to Milne Bay, New Guinea just after New Year’s 1944. Flying from Nadzab, Wakde, and Owi during the New Guinea/Bismarck Archipelago campaign, the unit ditched their P-70s for P-38Js (without radar!) before finally getting some Widows.
On 7 July 1944, a P-61 crew in the 421st NFS based in New Guinea shot down a Japanese twin-engine Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah reconnaissance airplane, only the type’s second air-to-air “kill” in the with their Saipan-based sister squadron, the 419th, bagging a moonlit Betty a week prior.
They then shifted north to the PI, operating from San Marcelino and then to Tacloban (as seen above) until 23 March when Clark Field on Luzon became their next stepping stone to Okinawa, operating from Ie Shima beginning on 24 July 1945. They ended their war occupying Itazuke Air Base, Japan, with 16 confirmed aerial victories to their tally sheet and 7 campaign streamers.
Inactivated on 20 February 1947, they reformed 15 years later as the F-105-equipped 421st TFS and soon took their show on the road, flying out of Incirlik during the Cold War as well as some serious Southeast Asia time on five deployments as Phantom Phlyers between 1969 and 1973 (DaNang, Kunsan, Takhli, and Udorn), earning three Presidential Unit Citations.
Stationed at Hill AFB in Utah since 1975, they flew F-16A/Cs during numerous trips to the sandbox in the 1990s and 2000s before upgrading to F-35As in 2017.
They still wear the “Widow” as their official patch.
210421-F-EF974-2024
And they are no doubt still ready to mix it up after dark.
Two F-35 Lightning IIs assigned to the 421st Fighter Squadron from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, sit on the flight line during a thunderstorm at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, July 25, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zachary Rufus)