538 FIS winner team at "William Tell" (USAF Air to Air Weapons Meet) at Tyndall AFB, Florida in September 1959

Officially designated the "USAF Air to Air Weapons Meet" "William Tell" was first held at Yuma, Arizona in 1954
(as part of the USAF Fighter Gunnery & Weapons Meet)
In 1958 it moved to it's current home of Tyndall AFB, Florida, home for the USAF Worldwide Air-to-Air Weapons Meet
LtCol Homer C. Boles (right low); Lieutenant Einar Enevoldson (standing right)

538th Fighter Interceptor Squadron Larson AFB, Moses Lake, Washington
The 538th FIS was activated in August 1955 at Larson AFB with F-86Ds. It transitioned to F-86Ls in June 1957 and to the F-104A in March 1958.
The squadron was deactivated on July 1, 1960.

According to legend, a medieval Austrian governor of Switzerland became enraged when a Swiss citizen refused to comply with his order
to perform a trivial act of obeisance. Knowing of the subject's prowess as a bowman, the governor offered him the alternative of complying
with the order or shooting an apple off his son's head. The archer chose to shoot the apple, and succeeded.
Through the years the name of William Tell has become synonymous with skilled marksmanship in defense of freedom.
Thus today's air defense units can be considered contemporary extensions of the William Tell tradition.

copyright © Peitzmeier archive