Originally constituted as "the 456th Fighter Squadron" on October 15, 1944 at Seymour Johnson Air Field, NC; then moved to Selfridge Air Field, MI on November 21, 1944; and then to Bluethenthal Air Field, NC on March 19 until June 5, 1945 before being reassigned to North Field, Iwo Jima as part of the 414th Fighter Group, 7th Fighter Command, 301st Fighter Wing, of the 20th Air Force, on July 7, 1945; and then again on December 23, 1945 to Clark Field and Florida Blance Field, Luzon in the Philippines; where it was finally deactivated on August 25, 1946

The squadron emblem or insignia that most of us know as Luther was originally described in the application for approval to the Department of the Army Air Corps, as follows:

"Over and through ultra-marine blue disc, a caricatured, ferocious, red octopus, affront, winged in gold, having yellow eyes with green pupils, three tentacles on either side focused and emanating a golden fluid toward the center base: area enclosed within the tentacles and fluid of the field." It was approved by the the Department of Army Air Corps, on 21, March 1945."

The original story of who designed, how it was chosen, or the significance of the insignia, and squadron motto of, "EXERTUS, MOSTUS, FIGHTUS, BESTUS" is totally unknown.

The squadron was resurrected and re-designated as the 456th Fighter Interceptor Squadron on March 23, 1953 at George AFB, Victorville, California. It was reactivated August 8, 1954 and assigned to TRUX Air Field, Madison Wisconsin, under the command of Major James Macefield, as part of the 28th Air Division, and equipped with North American F-86-D Saber Jets. Exactly one year later on August, 18 1955, the squadron was deactivated.

The 456 FIS deactivation was short lived, for two months later on October, 18 1955, it was reactivated again at Castle Air Force Base in Merced / Atwater California, with a detachment at the Fresno Municipal Airport, Fresno, California. Once again with North American F-86D Saber Jets. A year later June 1958 the squadron was transitioned to the Convair F-102"Delta Dagger" the first production delta wing aircraft in the world.

In September 1959, while still at Castel AFB, CA, the 456th received F-106A Delta Darts.

On 18 July 1968 the 456th, along with its distinctive tail flash color markings, moved to Oxnard AFB where the 456th designation was changed on the same day to the 437th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron.

This 437th designation was extremely short lived. Just 2 months later on 30 September 1968 the 437th designation was deactivated, thus making the 437th Fighter Interceptor Squadron the “shortest - lived” F-106 UNIT IN HISTORY.

On 30 September 1968, the same day the 437th FIS deactivated, the same unit was activated as the 460th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, and remained at Oxnard AFB. until November 1969 when it was then moved to Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Eighteen months later the 460th was once again moved, this time to Grand Forks Air Force Base, in Grand Forks, North Dakota in April 1971.

On July 15th 1974 the 460th FIS, which was the 437th FIS before that, which was the 456th FIS before that was deactivated and all the aircraft were either dispersed or removed from active duty.