The 58th Fighter Squadron "Mighty Gorillas" operated the F-15 Eagle from 1979 to September 2009 and then became the first F-35 Lightning II training squadron within the USAF. The squadron claimed the first Iraqi air force kill during Desert Storm on 17 January 1991 when a pilot of the squadron shot down an Iraqi Air Force MiG-29 with an AIM-7 Sparrow air to air missile, fired from his F-15C.