Susan Rosenfeld Ph.D

Charles J. Gross Ph.D 

Air National Guard at 60:

A HISTORY
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword 

i

Building a Total Force

1

Volunteers

17

America Attacked: September 11, 2001

33

Wars Without End

45

Support to Civil Authorities

57

Epilogue: Toward the Future

67

COVER: A Vermont Air National Guard F-16 from the 134th 

Fighter Squadron, 158th Fighter Wing, conducts combat air 

patrol over the still burning World Trade Center site, September 

12, 2001. (Photographer: Lt Col Terry B. Moultroup. 134th 

Fighter Squadron, 158th Fighter Wing, Vermont Air National 

Guard. Photo courtesy of Vermont Air National Guard.)

www.ang.af.mil/history
Staff Sergeant Leslie Wuerflein, from the 140th Logistics 

Squadron’s vehicle maintenance section, Colorado Air National 

Guard, loads bales of hay onto a Wyoming Air National Guard 

C-130 Hercules aircraft at Pueblo Memorial Airport, Colorado, 

January 3, 2007, for an emergency feeding mission that will be 

conducted the following morning. The hay will be dropped near 

La Junta, to help feed livestock that have been stranded by a 

snowstorm that has impacted the area. (Photographer: MSgt 

John Rohrer. U.S. Air Force Photo.) 
Every day they are called upon to defend the freedoms 

of our nation and help their fellow citizens in times of crisis. 

Performing according to the highest professional standards of 

the Air Force, Air Guard members embody our militia heritage 

and its volunteer tradition. 

For the past 60 years the Air National Guard has served as 

an invaluable resource for the Air Force and the governors, 

transitioning seamlessly between federal and state roles. Air 

National Guard members have served around the world and their 

military experience and civilian skills have proven invaluable as 

our nation prosecuted conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, the Persian 

Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They also served during 

several major contingencies including the Cuban Missile Crisis 

and the Berlin Crisis of 1961 to 1962. In addition, Air Guard 

members made major contributions in a host of other operations 

in Panama, the Balkans, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, and the Iraq 

no-fly zones instituted after Operation Desert Storm.

In the United States, the Hurricane Katrina relief effort 

brought into sharp focus the Air Guard’s well established role 

as America’s hometown Air Force. The Air National Guard 

flew over 3,000 sorties, moved over 30,000 passengers, and 

hauled over 11,000 tons of desperately needed supplies into 

Gulf Coast airfields, some of which Guard personnel opened 

and operated. Air National Guard members rescued 1,443 

people—heroically saving people stranded by the flood. At eight 

sites along the Gulf Coast, Air National Guard medical units 

treated more than 15,000 patients, combining expert medical 

care with compassion. Air Guard members, in 2006, joined 

their Army counterparts in Operation Jump Start, supporting 

the Border Patrol in strengthening efforts to help stem the flow 

of illegal immigrants into this nation across its southwestern 

border with Mexico into the United States. For many years Air 

Guard members have fought wildfires, combated the influx of 

prohibited drugs into the United States, and saved countless 

lives through the daily operations of its search and rescue units. 

In addition to their primary federal warfighting responsibilities, 

National Guard aviation units have been performing such 

missions for civil authorities at least since 1927. That year the 

governor of Arkansas called out his entire 154th Observation 

Squadron to use their aircraft to locate stranded survivors and 

breaks in levees during the great Mississippi River flood. 

The Air National Guard’s role within the Air Force has 

matured and changed enormously since its establishment as a 

separate reserve component September 18, 1947. Originally, 

the Air Guard was a poorly resourced Mobilization Day fighter 

force requiring weeks of preparation for its major mission: a 

T he Air National Guard has played significant 

roles in all of America’s wars and most of its 

major contingencies since the beginning of the 

20th century. Governors and citizens alike have looked to 

the Air Guard for relief and rescue during community and 

state emergencies. Today’s Citizen Airmen epitomize the 

enthusiasm, adaptability, and innovative spirit of America. 

i AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

FOREWORD

Lieutenant General Craig R. McKinley

Director, Air National Guard
possible war with the Soviet Union. Since then the Air National 

Guard has evolved into a highly capable organization held in 

a high state of readiness augmenting the active duty Air Force 

in a broad spectrum of operational missions around the globe 

on a daily basis. Beginning with the air defense runway alert 

experiment in March 1953, the Air Guard assumed what 

has become known in recent years as an “Operational” role. 

Simultaneously, the Air National Guard maintained the 

capability to serve as a “Reserve” force for wars and major 

contingencies. The defense of the United States is the Air 

National Guard’s primary responsibility as part of the Total Air 

Force and the National Military Strategy. At the same time, 

the governors rely on their Air Guard units to help handle 

everything from blizzards and hurricanes to the possibilities of a 

pandemic flu or another terrorist incident.

The following history, written by Dr. Susan Rosenfeld and 

Dr. Charles J. Gross of the Air National Guard’s history program, 

documents key facets of the ANG’s evolution and brings them 

up to date as the Air National Guard transforms to meet the 

space and information age and confronts the multiple challenges 

of terrorism, insurgency, illegal narcotics, humanitarian and 

peacekeeping operations, conventional warfare, and supports 

civil authorities. Chief Master Sergeant David P. Anderson’s 

chapters on Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom 

in the 2001 to 2004 Air National Guard periodic history 

contributed invaluable information to this publication. f

New Orleans Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base (Alvin Callender Field), Belle Chasse. Louisiana, September 1, 2005. (Gil Cohen, In Katrina’s Wake, 

National Guard Heritage Painting.)

ii
BUILDING A

An F-106A Delta Dart from the Golden Bears 

of California Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter 

Interceptor Wing launched an AIM-2 Genie air 

to air missile in the 1980 William Tell aerial 

weapons competition. The Wing won overall top 

honors. (Photographer: TSgt Frank Garzenick. 

Air National Guard Collection.)

1 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY

TOTAL FORCE

H urricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. “This 

was, by and large, the worst sight of devastation I’ve ever seen in 

my career,” Chief Master Sergeant Pat Malone of the 123rd 

Special Tactics Squadron, Kentucky Air National Guard (ANG) recalled of his 

deployment to flooded New Orleans, Louisiana. Chief Malone was among some 

40,000 National Guardsmen* who responded. “The sheer magnitude of it and 

the conditions we had the guys working in were the most devastating.” As a 
veteran of the first Gulf War and the 

continuing conflicts in Afghanistan 

and Iraq, Chief Malone had plenty of 

experience to compare with his Louisiana 

assignment. Working with the 125th 

Special Tactics Squadron (Oregon), the 

212th Rescue Squadron (Alaska), 131st 

Rescue Squadron (California), and the 

103rd Rescue Squadron (New York), 

all ANG, the 123rd used Zodiac boats 

to rescue over 1,200 people. They also 

saved 86 people found wading through 

the waters or trapped in vehicles. “Once 

you really get the guys in there, they’re in 

a giant cesspool of contaminated water with 

anything you can imagine. Anything in 

anybody’s garage, any chemical under 

anybody’s sink, the oil industries, the 

deceased, animals, sewage, everything 

mixed together,” Chief Malone said. The 

pararescuemen with Malone were trained 

“to get into confined, collapsed spaces; 

conduct search and rescue missions; cut 

through roofs; cut down doors; and 

get into places other rescue workers can’t 

... These guys were selfless ... and they 

jumped in there and saved people for 

seven straight days.” 

“The shortest distance between a 

disaster and humanitarian assistance is an 

Air National Guard C-130,” noted one 

Guardsman looking back on the ANG’s 

hurricane missions. During Katrina, 

Air Guard C-130s ferried in rescuers, 

medics, and support workers, and carried 

out the rescued. On September 1, 2005, 

the 139th Airlift Wing of the Missouri 

Air National Guard flew 31 New Orleans 

children who needed hospitalization 

on two C-130s into Kansas City for 

treatment. The Delaware Air National 

Guard’s 166th Airlift Wing C-130 crews 

brought Army National Guard members 

into Jackson, Mississippi, while Nevada’s 

152nd Airlift Wing flew Guard medical 

teams into Baton Rouge. Pave Hawk 

Kentucky Air National Guardsmen, 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, setting out with Zodiac boats to 

rescue survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, 2005. (Air Force Photo.) BELOW: A US Air 

Force C-5 Galaxy, 105th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard, Stewart International airport, 

New York, sits on a ramp at the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center, Mississippi, as airmen 

with the 137th Airlift Squadron unload the cargo bay full of support vehicles and equipment for Hurricane Katrina relief operations. (Photographer: TSgt Micheal O’Halloran. Air Force Photo.) 

“These guys were selfless ... and they 

jumped in there and saved people for 

seven straight days.”

*Both men and women in the Air National Guard 

are referred to as Guardsmen.
rescue helicopters dropped in rescue 

teams like Chief Malone’s. Louisiana 

Air National Guard’s 122nd Air Support 

Operations Squadron had trained to call 

in air strikes; after Katrina, they used 

those same skills to direct rescuers.

First responder-type search and 

rescue is only one of the many roles 

played by the men and women of the 

Air National Guard. Today they carry 

more responsibilities in the military 

than at any time in the Air Guard’s 

60-year history. And like the rescues it 

conducted in Katrina, its heroic actions 

as well as in its less spectacular but 

essential support roles, the Air Guard’s 

achievements were rarely touted outside 

their localities and Air Force media. Yet, in 

the United States, the ANG has primary 

responsibility for the aerial defense of 

the United States as well as assisting civil 

authorities to deal with natural disasters. 

In addition, the Air Guard provides 

almost half of the Air Force’s tactical 

airlift support, combat communications, 

aeromedical evacuations, and aerial refueling. In August 2007 

it consisted of 13,158 

full time Guardsmen 

and 69,901 traditional 

Guardsmen who take on 

that role one weekend a 

month plus two weeks a 

year. Technicians occupy 

a special category. They 

are considered traditional 

Guardsmen serving drill 

weekends and their annual 

training, but the rest of 

the time they have civil 

service status doing the 

same work as their Guard 

responsibilities. In August 

2007 the ANG had 22,833 

technicians.Guardsmen 

could serve in one of three 

capacities when involved 

in operations. Normally, 

they reported to the state 

governors, and the state 

paid for the operation 

(State Active Duty). They 

could also report to the 

governor, and the federal 

government financed the 

operation under Title 32 

of the United States Code (USC), or they 

could be federalized by the president or 

Congress under Title 10 of the USC.

Major General Winston P. “Wimpy” 

Wilson, one of the most important 

officers in Air National Guard history, 

and the first from the ANG to head the 

National Guard Bureau, contributed an 

insight in the early 1960s that took on 

even more significance as the Air Guard 

accepted increased responsibilities in the 

post-Cold War military. Because Guard 

personnel often had previous active 

duty training and held civilian jobs 

comparable to their military duties, and 

because of their longevity in individual 

units, the ANG could maintain high 

levels of military proficiency with far 

less training time than their active 

duty counterparts.

The National Guard Bureau had 

responsibility for administrative matters 

pertaining to the Army National Guard 

and the Air National Guard, their 

operation under unified command, and 

their integration into combat-ready teams 

of land and air forces with the Army 

and Air Force respectively. Unlike their 

active duty counterparts in the Air Force, 

most Air National Guard members were 

long-time residents of the communities 

they served, with traditional Guardsmen 

holding a variety of positions including 

teachers, firefighters, police, dentists, 

accountants, and small business owners. 

Because of its strong community ties, the 

Air National Guard was able to command 

influential congressional support. 

Moreover, for most of its responsibilities, 

the Guard reported to the governor of its 

state or territory.* Those ties gave the 

Guard substantial political clout.

Historically, the Air National Guard 

sought to insure that it remained a 

viable organization relevant to Air Force 

requirements by acquiring the most 

advanced aircraft and ground equipment 

available and integrating them into a 

broad spectrum of missions that the ANG 

shared with the active force. Although the 

Air Guard seldom acquired brand new 

aircraft straight from the factory, it usually 

had been able to maintain the operational 

capabilities of its planes and helicopters 

through superior maintenance, high levels 

* The exception is the District of Columbia, where the 

president of the United States is its head.

3 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Major General Winston P. “Wimpy” Wilson (left) being sworn in as 

Chief, National Guard Bureau, by Secretary of the Air Force Eugene 

M. Zuckert during ceremonies held at Air Force Headquarters, September 4, 1963. (Air Force Photo.)
4

of aircrew experience, rigorous training 

and realistic exercises, and innovative 

modernization programs.

The Early Days of

National Guard Aviation

The late afternoon shadows lengthened 

as the sun dropped toward the western 

horizon over the shell–scarred French 

landscape. A flight of Royal Air Force 

(RAF) SE-5s patrolling at 16,000 feet 

turned south toward their home base 

at Bruay. Reed G. Landis, the lone 

American in the formation, “hunched 

forward in the tiny cockpit and searched 

the scattered puffs of clouds ahead ... 

suddenly Landis saw the flight leader 

rock his wings vigorously and roll into a 

steep dive ... Approximately 1,000 feet 

below, a half-dozen Pfalz [F.A.] scouts 

were cruising east.” According to Landis’s 

combat report, he “followed the flight 

down on F.A. scouts, majority of which 

spun. Continued to dive after the F.A. 

and engaged one as it came out of a spin. 

Fired short bursts from both guns into 

F.A., which did several turns of a spin and 

then fell into a dive.” Landis, a former 

Illinois Guardsman who volunteered for 

aviation duty, scored his first official kill. 

He went on to become one of America’s 

leading aces in World War I with ten 

aerial victories. (An ace had to have at 

least five confirmed aerial victories.) He 

was one of four former Guardsmen to 

achieve the coveted status of ace in that 

conflict. Their spectacular individual 

achievements underscored that, despite 

little interest from either the states or 

federal government, the Guard had been 

a hotbed of interest in American military 

aviation during its early days.

Although the ANG was not officially 

established in law as a separate reserve 

component until September 18, 1947, 

National Guard aviation emerged before 

World War I. Early Guard aviation was 

a product of grassroots efforts. In August 

1908 the Army formally accepted the 

world’s first military airplane from the 

Wright brothers. Meanwhile, that April, 

a group of enthusiasts organized an 

“aeronautical corps” at the Park Avenue 

Armory in New York City to learn 

ballooning. They were members of the 

1st Company, Signal Corps, New York 

National Guard. Although they received 

instruction and assembled a balloon, it 

was not clear whether members of the 

unit had ever actually ascended in it. 

In 1910 the unit raised $500 to 

finance its first aircraft. The investment 

crashed along with the plane on its initial 

takeoff during maneuvers that same year. 

However, the following year, the Curtiss 

Aeroplane Company loaned the New 

York Guardsmen an aircraft and pilot 

Beckwith Havens. When Havens later 

joined the unit as a private, he became the 

National Guard’s first aviator. In August 

1912 he flew with the Army in joint 

maneuvers. 

Prior to World War I civilian flyers, 

businessmen, and National Guardsmen 

attempted to form Guard aero units in 

various states. On November 1, 1915, 

more than a year after the war in Europe 

began, Captain Raynal Cawthorne 

Bolling, a prominent New York attorney, 

organized the Aviation Detachment, 

First Battalion, Signal Corps of the New 

York National Guard. That marked 

the Guard’s first genuine aviation unit. 

Subsequently, the organization was 

redesignated the First Aero Company. 

Located at Mineola, Long Island, the 

unit was formed June 22, 1916, and 

was called into federal service on July 

13, 1916, when the Mexican revolution 

spilled over the border into the United 

States. However, instead of active service 

in the southwest, it remained at Mineola 

for training and was demobilized on 

November 2, 1916.

The failed call-up convinced Captain 

Bolling that National Guard aviation 

units could never be effective military 

organizations. Aside from the difficulty of 

obtaining funds and spare parts, Bolling 

saw the main problem as the inability to 

recruit expert mechanics into the National 

Guard. Instead his unit had to rely entirely 

on paid civilians to maintain its aircraft. 

Both Bolling and the acting chief of the 

Militia Bureau, a regular Army officer, 

were convinced that military aviation 

could only be developed under the auspices 

of the active force. Consequently, the 

A Galludet Tractor biplane which the New York National Guard aviators rented in 1915.

(Air National Guard Photo Collection.)
War Department decided Guard aviation 

units would not be mobilized during 

World War I (April 1917 to November 

1918 for the United States). Instead the 

War Department disbanded them and 

individual Guardsmen were encouraged 

to volunteer for active duty.

Nevertheless, when President Woodrow 

Wilson asked Congress for a declaration 

of war in April 1917, Guardsmen provided 

a major pool of aviators for the Army. 

Approximately 100 of them had either 

qualified as pilots or were in training to 

become military aviators. Under War 

Department policy they had to leave 

the Guard and volunteer for the Signal 

Corps Reserve if they wished to remain 

in aviation during the war. 

Although no reliable comprehensive 

figures exist on how many Guardsmen 

actually served in the U.S. aviation 

program during World War I, they made 

significant contributions as individual 

volunteers. The most famous of the Guard’s 

four aces was Major Reed Chambers who 

was credited with six aerial victories. He 

joined the Tennessee Guard in 1914 and 

served on the Mexican border in 1916 

before becoming an original member 

of the famed 94th Pursuit Squadron in 

France. On April 14, 1918, Chambers 

flew with Captain Eddie Rickenbacker on 

the first combat mission ever ordered by 

an American commander of a U.S. Army 

squadron of American pilots.

Second Lieutenant Erwin R. Bleckley, 

a field artilleryman from the Kansas 

National Guard, volunteered for 

aviation duty after he reached France. 

On October 5, 1918, members of 

the squadron attempted to locate and 

resupply an American infantry battalion 

that had been cut off by the Germans in 

the Argonne Forest. The following day, 

Bleckley and his pilot, First Lieutenant 

Harold E. Goettler (a non-Guardsman), 

braved very poor weather and intense 

ground fire to drop supplies to the “lost 

battalion.” But flying at an altitude 

of 200 feet, their aircraft was downed 

by enemy rifle and machine gun fire. 

Both Bleckley and Goettler received the 

Medal of Honor posthumously for their 

heroism. Bleckley was the first of three 

National Guard aviators to be awarded 

the nation’s highest military decoration.

Initially, the War Department and 

the Army Air Service had no intention 

of organizing aviation units in the 

postwar National Guard. However, 

some Guardsmen and their political allies 

such as congressmen and governors had 

developed an intense interest in flying. 

Responding to political pressure and 

the availability of surplus wartime 

aircraft, the War Department changed 

its position. Early in 1920 the Militia 

Bureau and the Air Service agreed on 

a plan for organizing National Guard 

aviation units. On January 17, 1921, 

the 109th Observation Squadron of 

the Minnesota National Guard became 

the first postwar air unit to receive 

federal recognition. Many World War I 

veterans and other talented fliers joined 

postwar Guard aviation units. During 

the interwar period, 29 observation 

squadrons were established. They were 

either integral elements of National 

Guard infantry divisions or assigned to 

Army corps aviation.

The National Guard’s observation 

responsibilities directly supported ground 

troops by looking for the enemy and 

helping direct artillery fire. An aviator 

in the 110th Observation Squadron of 

the Missouri National Guard became 

the most famous Guard pilot during 

the interwar period: Captain Charles A. 

Lindbergh. His service illustrated the close 

ties between military and commercial 

aviation. Trained to fly by the Army, he 

joined the 110th Observation Squadron 

in November 1925. The following year, 

he became chief pilot for an airmail 

venture started by fellow 110th pilots 

Major William Robertson and his 

brother Frank. After Lindbergh made 

his historic solo trans-Atlantic flight in 

May 1927, he recalled his service in the 

Guard fondly. He wrote that his fellow 

Captain Charles A. Lindbergh, Missouri National Guard, and members of his National Guard unit, 

110th Observation Squadron, after he flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean, 1927. (Courtesy of 131st 

Fighter Wing, Missouri Air National Guard.)

5 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
6

pilots “joined the Guard for two reasons 

that still hold up: first, the opportunity 

it offered to keep in flying training, and 

second, they considered it a patriotic 

duty to keep fit for immediate service in 

the case of a wartime emergency.”

However, in the pre-World War 

II period, Guard aviators also honored the 

citizen soldier tradition by assisting civil 

authorities in domestic emergencies, most 

notably during the devastating Mississippi 

River flood of April and May 1927. 

Arkansas Governor John Martineau called 

up the 154th Observation Squadron, 

Arkansas National Guard, which flew 

over 20,000 miles across their state saving 

thousands of lives. Even before the floods 

reached their state, 60 members of the 

154th pointed out potential breaks in the 

levees and airdropped food, medicine, 

and supplies to the workers shoring 

them up. Once the storm arrived they 

flew their single-engine biplane Curtiss 

Jennies low in driving rain to airdrop 

supplies to families marooned in trees and 

on rooftops, and guided rescue boats to 

stranded people.

By the late 1920s the Guard’s 

observation mission in direct support 

of ground troops became increasingly 

marginalized in the opinion of Air 

Corps officers. Changing doctrine and 

revolutionary advances in aeronautical 

technology drove the Army’s air arm 

to concentrate increasingly more of its 

resources on the strategic bombardment 

mission. As a consequence of that shift, 

during the 1930s, the Air Corps turned 

over almost all of its responsibility for 

observation aviation to the Guard. That 

pattern of shifting all or major portions of 

less important missions from the regulars 

to the Guard (and later the Reserves) 

persisted through the remainder of the 

20th century.

Guard Aviation 

in World War II

In 1940 National Guard observation 

squadrons were mobilized as nondivisional formations and absorbed into 

the Army Air Forces. Approximately 

4,800 National Guard aviation personnel 

were called up. While the majority of 

their units retained their numerical 

designations, most lost their character 

as Guard organizations. The rapidly 

expanding Army Air Forces used a 

majority of the key Guard members to 

help organize and train the multitude 

of volunteers that flooded into the 

wartime service. Some like Lieutenant 

Colonel Addison Baker of the Ohio 

National Guard achieved important 

combat leadership positions during the 

war. Baker died while commanding 

the 93rd Heavy Bombardment Group 

during the ill-fated raid against enemy 

oil refineries at Ploiesti, Romania, on 

August 1, 1943. He received the Medal 

of Honor posthumously for his courage 

and leadership that day.

The Air National Guard 

is Born

The Air National Guard as we know it 

today—a separate reserve component 

of the Air Force—was a product of 

the politics of postwar planning and 

inter-service rivalry during World War 

II (December 1941 to August 1945 

for the United States). The leaders 

who planned and maneuvered for an 

independent postwar Air Force during 

World War II had little confidence in the 

reserves, especially the state-dominated 

National Guard. On the contrary, 

those leaders expected to build the 

largest and most modern standing force 

possible. However, domestic politics 

and American history forced them to 

significantly alter their plans.

Determined to include the National 

Guard in the postwar U.S. military 

establishment during World War II, 

the National Guard Association of the 

United States flexed its considerable 

political muscle. It compelled the 

Army Air Forces (AAF) to plan for a 

significant dual-component reserve force 

including an Air National Guard once 

the overseas fighting ended. General 

George C. Marshall, Army Chief of 

Staff, also pressured the AAF to revise 

its ambitious plans for a large postwar 

active duty force. When President 

Harry S. Truman instituted dramatic 

postwar military budget cuts, he split 

defense dollars evenly among the Army, 

Navy, and Air Force. That move also 

required the Air Force to plan for a far 

smaller active duty service than it had 

envisaged. As a result, the Air Force 

Retired Colorado Air Guard Technical Sergeant 

Harry Emily, 90. He joined the National Guard 

in 1938 and was discharged after World War II. 

He recalled that there were 17 members in 1946 

when they reorganized the 120th Aero Observation Squadron into the 120th Tactical Fighter 

Squadron which flew P-51 Mustang fighters, 

2007. (Photographer: Spc Jessica Stone, Colorado National Guard. Air Force Photo.)
needed the reserve components to help 

fill the gap. 

Against the best professional judgment 

of the Air Force leadership, the Air Force 

of the mid-to-late 1940s included the 

58,000 members of what became the Air 

National Guard. Its primary units were 

84 flying squadrons, mostly fighters with 

air defense of the continental United 

States as their main mission. In 1946, as 

individual units began obtaining federal 

recognition, a separate Air Guard began 

to emerge. September 18, 1947, however, 

is considered the ANG’s official birth 

date, the same day the Air Force became 

a separate service under the National 

Security Act of that year. 

The Korean War and After

The Korean War (June 1950 to July 

1953) was a turning point for the U.S. 

military establishment including the 

Air National Guard. Some 45,000 Air 

Guardsmen, 80 percent of the force, 

were mobilized. That call-up exposed 

the glaring weaknesses of the ANG as 

well as the rest of the American military 

establishment. After World War II, 

the Guard developed a reputation as 

a glorified flying club for World War 

II combat veterans. Not only did units 

and individuals lack specific wartime 

missions, their equipment, especially 

aircraft, was obsolete and their training, 

usually deplorable. Once mobilized, those 

Guardsmen proved to be almost totally 

unprepared for combat. Regardless of 

their previous training and equipment, 

Guard units were assigned almost at 

random to major air commands. It took 

months and months for ANG units 

7 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
8

to become combat ready; some units 

never succeeded.

While most Air National Guard 

enlisted members remained with their 

units during the Korean War, many key 

officers, especially pilots, were stripped 

away from their units and used as fillers 

elsewhere in the rapidly expanding 

Air Force. Eventually, the mess was 

sorted out. The recalled Guardsmen 

contributed substantially to the air 

war in Korea and to the Air Force’s 

global buildup for an expected military 

confrontation with the Soviet Union. 

In fact six ANG fighter squadrons 

and numerous individual Guard pilots 

serving in Air Force units compiled 

excellent combat records in Korea. They 

flew more than 39,000 combat sorties 

and destroyed 39 enemy aircraft. Four 

Guardsmen became aces. However, the 

initial mobilization fiasco forced the Air 

Force to achieve an accommodation 

with the Air Guard and to thoroughly 

revamp its entire reserve system.

Although flying units garnered most 

of the attention during the Korean War, 

11,000 of the 45,000 mobilized Air 

Guardsmen belonged to the organization’s 

aircraft control and warning as well as its 

radar calibration units. Their organizations 

either strengthened American air defenses 

or were converted to tactical air control 

units that directed Air Force fighter 

aircraft in the continental United States, 

Alaska, Newfoundland, Europe, and 

French Morocco.

During and after the conflict in 

Korea, Congress played a key role in 

placing reserve programs on a sound 

footing. Congress was much more willing 

than either the Department of Defense or 

Beginning on March 1, 1953, two Air National Guard units–the 138th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from Syracuse, New York, pictured here, and 

the 194th Fighter Bomber Squadron from Hayward, California–each placed two F-51D fighters and five pilots on air defense “runway alert” from 

one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. The runway alert program was the first broad effort to integrate reserve forces into a major Air Force 

operational mission on a volunteer basis during peacetime. (Gil Cohen, Runway Alert, National Guard Heritage Painting.)
the military services to fund the reserves 

properly. Moreover, beginning with the 

passage of the Armed Forces Reserve Act 

of 1952, a series of key laws fostered the 

development of more effective reserve 

components.

Although Korean War hostilities 

ended in July 1953, the Cold War 

persisted. Georgia Air Guard Major 

General George G. Finch, former Air 

Division chief at the National Guard 

Bureau, wanted to find an innovative 

way to provide additional training 

for fighter pilots after their units were 

demobilized. At the same time, the Air 

Defense Command could not call upon 

sufficient active duty Air Force units to 

defend the continental United States 

against the Soviet air threat. General 

Finch proposed to employ pilots full 

time from “strategically placed” Air 

Guard units to perform “air intercept 

missions” against unidentified aircraft 

entering U.S. air space. In addition they 

would “provide simulated fighter attacks 

against the Strategic Air Command’s 

[SAC’s] nuclear-capable bombers.” 

Using Air Guardsmen from the 

138th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 

Syracuse, New York, and the 194th 

Fighter Bomber Squadron, Hayward, 

California, the experiment, which 

began on March 1, 1953, proved a great 

success—except that it had to remain 

a secret at least for the time being. 

Brigadier General Curtis J. Irwin, the 

138th commander, later recalled trying 

to obtain the services of his pilots from 

their civilian employers but not being 

able to tell them why. “But with Cold 

War tensions remaining high, employers 

were eager to help.” 

In August and October 1954 eight 

and nine fighter interceptor squadrons 

respectively began “standing alert” using 

volunteer aircrews on a rotating basis 

for 14 hours a day. The ANG runway 

alert program required some planes and 

pilots to be available around-the-clock 

to become airborne within minutes of 

being notified to scramble. At its peak, in 

the mid-1950s, all 70 Air Guard fighter 

squadrons participated in that program, 

although that number was reduced to 

25 by 1961. Most of the runway alert 

exercises involved SAC bombers; the few 

actual scrambles turned out to be late 

or off-course commercial airliners. The 

runway alert experiment in 1953 marked 

the beginning of the Air Guard’s modern 

homeland defense role. Moreover, it was 

the first broad effort to integrate reserve 

units into a major Air Force combat 

mission in peacetime on a continuing 

basis using volunteers. 

Because of problems associated 

with the Korean War mobilizations, the 

Air Force and its reserve components 

pioneered new approaches like the 

runway alert program to reserve training 

and management. The Air Guard received 

support for its innovations from its strong 

political base in the states and Congress. 

More significantly, key Air Force and 

Air National Guard leaders agreed to 

put their past differences behind them 

to build on increasingly effective reserve 

programs. The Air National Guard had 

a creative and politically savvy leader in 

General Wilson, then head of the ANG 

organization in the National Guard 

Bureau. Mobilized from Arkansas in 

1950 for the Korean War, he expected to 

serve in Washington, DC, for 21 months. 

Instead he remained for 21 years. Wilson 

9 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Captain John McMahn and Sergeant White, of the 182nd Fighter Bomb Squadron, Texas Air National 

Guard, close out flight records at Taegu, South Korea, following their F-84E becoming the first such 

aircraft to complete 1,000 flying hours, 1952. (Air Force Photo.)
10

served as head of the Air National Guard 

from 1954 to 1962. In 1963, he became 

the first Air Guardsman to serve as Chief 

of the National Guard Bureau, staying in 

that position until 1971. Under Wilson’s 

leadership, the ANG transformed from a 

flying club to a valued reserve component 

of the Air Force.

General Wilson and others recognized 

that the Air Guard faced a dim future 

unless it acquired definite wartime 

missions and integrated with Air Force 

operations on a regular basis while meeting 

the same tough training standards as the 

active duty force. To be ready for combat 

the moment it was called into federal 

service, the Air Guard also needed more 

full-time manning and additional training 

periods for its aviators. Finally, General 

Wilson and others fought hard to acquire 

modern aircraft and facilities. General 

Wilson emphasized the high experience 

level found among Air Guard individuals 

and units and convinced the Air National 

Guard, the Air Force, Congress, and the 

states to accept those concepts.

Pushed by its Air Guard and Reserve 

and their political supporters, the Air 

Force adopted several management and 

training innovations after the Korean War 

that promoted the evolution of combatready reserve forces. The most significant 

policy innovations included placing those 

air reserve forces in war plans, the ANG’s 

participation in the air defense runway 

alert program, the “gaining command 

concept” of reserve forces management, 

and the selected reserve force program.

In 1951 the Air Force established 

specific mobilization requirements for 

the Air Guard in its war plans for the 

first time. The ANG now began to 

train against those requirements and 

plans. Guard leaders proposed the air 

defense runway alert program as a way to 

combine realistic training with support of 

a significant combat mission in peacetime. 

As the first broad effort to integrate reserve 

units into the regular peacetime operating 

structure of the American armed forces 

on a continuing basis, that program was 

the precursor to the Air Force’s total force 

approach to reserve components’ training 

and utilization.

Another significant innovation—

the gaining command concept of 

reserve forces management—meant 

that the major air command responsible 

for using a Guard or Reserve unit in 

wartime would actually train it during 

peacetime. Air National Guard leaders 

had pressed for that arrangement for 

years. In 1960 budget cuts and criticism 

of the air reserve programs forced the 

active duty Air Force to adopt the 

concept. It improved the effectiveness 

of ANG units by giving Air Force 

commanders direct personal incentives 

for improving the performance of those 

organizations. In addition, it established 

firm precedents for the total force policy 

by integrating the Air Guard into the 

daily operations of the active force.

The selected reserve force program—

another major policy innovation—reflected 

then Secretary of Defense Robert S. 

McNamara’s determination to build 

an elite force of highly capable reserve 

units to support the John F. Kennedy 

administration’s flexible response policy. 

That policy expected America’s military 

forces, including its reserve components, 

to be prepared to respond within a few 

days once they were recalled to active 

duty. To support flexible response and 

improve readiness, Secretary McNamara 

proposed shrinking America’s large 

reserve establishment and merging the 

National Guard with the purely federal 

reserve components. Such efforts had 

been tried several times since World 

War II, always failing. It failed again 

in the early 1960s. The secretary then 

created a selected reserve force in each 

of the military services. Those units 

had priority access to equipment, could 

recruit to full wartime strength, and were 

allowed to conduct additional training 

each year. They would provide most of 

the nation’s strategic military reserve in 

the United States while a growing share 

of the active force was engaged in the 

Vietnam War.

Reshaping the Air National 

Guard Force Structure

Originally the Air National Guard was 

designed as a combat reserve force. After 

World War II, its flying units consisted 

of 72 fighter and 12 light bomber 

squadrons equipped with obsolescent 

World War II propeller-driven aircraft 

while the Air Force transitioned to jet 

fighters. Although it had no airlift or 

tanker units, the Guard’s flying units 

were equipped with a small number 

of liaison, trainer, and transport 

planes. To preserve its flying units the 

Air Guard actively sought out new 

missions and aircraft for them including 

transports and tankers, a practice that 

still persists.

ANG transformed from a flying club to a 

valued reserve component of the Air Force.
After the Korean War, the Air 

National Guard’s force structure gradually changed to include a significant 

number of airlift, tanker, and specialized 

combat-support units. The Air Guard 

aggressively worked to preserve its 

existing flying units by obtaining the 

most modern aircraft available. Those 

included growing numbers of large 

aircraft used in special operations, 

aeromedical transport, strategic and 

tactical airlift, and aerial refueling 

missions. Although those planes were 

usually older models no longer needed 

by the active force, they were gradually 

integrated into the service’s daily 

operations by the Air National Guard 

as either a by-product of training needs 

or in response to specific emergencies.

The Air Guard found prop-driven 

transports important at that time for 

several reasons. Some existing Air 

National Guard fighter units equipped 

with piston-driven F-51s could not 

convert to jets because the runways at the 

local airports where they were based were 

too short. In addition, some local leaders 

simply did not want jet fighters operating 

in their communities. Guardsmen and 

the affected communities, however, 

were determined not to lose those units. 

Korean War operations suggested that 

experience and maturity were the keys to 

victory in jet combat. Nevertheless, the Air 

Guard believed that only relatively young 

men were capable of performing well in 

modern fighters. The Guard considered 

airlift a viable option for keeping senior 

aviators in the cockpit. Finally, with the 

advent of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), 

some observers concluded that the days 

of fighter units were numbered. 

With the end of World War II the 

Air Force dropped special operations 

units from its rolls. “Special Operations 

Forces are small, elite military units with 

special training and equipment that can 

infiltrate into hostile territory through 

land, sea, or air to conduct a variety of 

operations, many of them classified. The 

personnel undergo rigorous selection 

and lengthy, specialized training.” They 

were revived for the Korean War. After 

that conflict, in 1954, the Air Force, 

preoccupied with its high technology 

buildup for a possible global nuclear war 

with the Soviet Union, planned to phase 

out its remaining special operations 

units. General Wilson and governors in 

four states agreed to establish new units 

the Air Force was no longer interested 

in assisting. Consequently, in April 

1955, the Air Guard acquired its first 

special operations unit when the 129th 

Air Resupply Squadron was federally 

recognized and two C-46s were delivered 

to it at Hayward, California. 

Encouraged by Guardsmen and their 

political allies, during the late 1950s, the Air 

Force allowed several other Air National 

Guard units to trade in their aging fighters 

for old transports. New Jersey’s newly 

organized 150th Aeromedical Transport 

Squadron (Light) became the first pure 

airlift unit in the Air Guard on February 

1, 1956. It received Curtiss C-46D 

Commandos. Two other aeromedical 

transport squadrons followed that year, 

primarily because of the impracticality of 

converting their locations to modern jet 

fighter operations.

Three years later, General Wilson 

learned that the Air Force, in order to 

save operating funds, planned to phase 

out 48 C-97 Stratofreighters before 

their replacements were available to the 

active force. Wilson proposed sending 

those planes to ANG fighter-interceptor 

squadrons and Air Force Secretary 

James H. Douglas, an airlift officer in 

World War II, approved the proposal. 

In January 1960, units in California, 

Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, 

and Oklahoma began trading in their 

fighters for C-97s.

Air National Guard leaders were 

determined to further expand the ANG’s 

role in key Air Force missions. In 1960 

they convinced the National Guard 

11 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

F-104A from the 157th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, South Carolina Air National Guard, is loaded aboard 

a C-124 for shipment to Europe during the Berlin crisis, 1961. (Office of Air Force History, USAF.)
12

Association of the United States that 

“Broadening the Air National Guard 

missions is essential.” To limit Guard 

missions to a small number of defense 

requirements made units vulnerable to 

program changes. “A well-balanced Air 

National Guard with missions in all 

areas of the defense requirements, is a 

sound goal.” As a result, the Air Guard 

also took on an air refueling mission. 

The Air Guard received its first KC-97 

aerial tankers in July and August 1961. 

During that period the 108th Fighter 

Interceptor Squadron, Illinois; 126th 

Fighter Interceptor Squadron, Wisconsin; 

and 145th Air Transport Squadron, 

Ohio, converted to KC-97Fs and were 

redesignated air refueling squadrons. 

The Guard’s desire to preserve all of 

its existing flying units with the most 

modern aircraft available encouraged 

a significant number of conversions to 

tanker and strategic airlift aircraft during 

the remainder of the 1960s.

Cold Warriors

On August 13, 1961, Berliners woke up 

to find they lived in a divided city. A wall 

now separated East Berlin from West 

Berlin. With that provocative act, the 

Soviet Union ratcheted up the Cold War. 

President Kennedy mobilized a limited 

number of Reserve and Guard units, 

dispatching 11 ANG fighter squadrons 

to Europe. All the Guard units were in 

place within a month of their respective 

mobilization days, although they required 

additional training, equipment, and 

personnel after being called up. In all, 

some 21,000 Air Guardsmen were 

mobilized during the 1961 Berlin Crisis.

Reliance on second-rate equipment 

and primitive living conditions during 

the Berlin call-ups continued to plague 

the Air Guard units deployed to western 

Europe. To ameliorate the problems 

revealed during that mobilization, in 

February 1963, the Air Force formally 

proclaimed the policy goal of having 

the air reserve components immediately 

available to augment the active force 

to a spectrum of conflicts including 

guerrilla and limited conventional 

warfare. Both the ANG and the Air 

Force Reserve also received increased 

resources. Nevertheless, not until the 

1980s did their units secure adequate 

equipment and training to become 

deployable quickly for global wartime 

tasking on an across-the-board basis.

By August 1962 the units mobilized 

for the Berlin Crisis returned to state 

control. They had hardly resumed 

normal operations when President 

Kennedy announced on October 22, 

1962, that the Soviet Union had placed 

nuclear warheads in Cuba, only 90 miles 

from Florida. With the Cuban Missile 

Crisis, Air National Guard fighter units 

trained for “no notice” deployments, and 

volunteer ANG airlift crews and their 

aircraft augmented Air Force global airlift 

operations. Air National Guard bases 

hosted Air Force fighters and bombers 

dispersed there to avoid a possible Soviet 

nuclear response to the crisis. But in the 

end, no ANG unit was federalized. 

Gradually, the Guard’s airlift and 

tanker units became involved in the daily 

operations of the active force as part of 

their training. From January through 

December 1963, for the first time for 

an air reserve component Air National 

Guard tactical flying units began 

routinely deploying overseas during 

their annual training periods, primarily 

to Europe, to exercise their wartime 

missions. Air National Guard transport 

units hauled cargo for the Military Air 

Transport Service while training for their 

wartime global airlift role.

The 1960s also saw the inauguration of a major refueling operation, 

Creek Party, which flourished almost 

daily from 1967 to 1977. The Texas 

Air Guard’s 136th Air Refueling Wing 

inaugurated Operation Creek Party 

May 1, 1967, because the Air Force 

did not have enough tankers available 

in Europe to train its fighter pilots. 

Ground crew prepares an F-100 of Colorado’s 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron for combat mission at 

Phan Rang Air Base, South Vietnam. (Air National Guard Collection.) 
The operation eventually involved nine 

ANG air refueling groups that rotated 

approximately every two weeks to RheinMain Air Force Base in Germany. During 

those years, the Air Force tankers in 

Europe primarily supported the Vietnam 

War and the demands of the Strategic Air 

Command, which carried nuclear bombs. 

Both volunteers and Guardsmen on their 

annual training participated. A permanent 

commander and a small detachment of 

enlisted personnel stayed there full time 

to serve as liaison with the active duty Air 

Force and provide continuity. Operation 

Creek Party demonstrated that the Air 

Guard could sustain an overseas rotation 

without necessitating a mobilization by 

the president or Congress. In addition, it 

established a pattern for future overseas 

operational rotations using volunteers on 

short tours.

The Vietnam War provided the next 

significant test for the Air Guard. However, 

for largely domestic political reasons, 

President Lyndon B. Johnson chose not 

to mobilize most of the nation’s reserve 

forces. The senior leadership of both the 

active duty military establishment and the 

reserve forces tried in vain to reverse the 

president’s decision to avoid a major reserve 

mobilization. As a result, the Reserves and 

the Guard acquired reputations as havens 

for relatively affluent, young white men to 

avoid the draft.

Following the 1968 Tet offensive in 

which the Communist North Vietnamese 

and Vietcong troops attacked positions 

throughout the Republic of Vietnam, the 

Pentagon dispatched four ANG fighter 

squadrons to that nation. According 

to the Chief of the National Guard’s 

annual report for that year, “All four 

Guard squadrons in South Vietnam had 

convinced everyone—particularly the 

Vietcong—that they were highly qualified 

professionals with a zest and enthusiasm 

equal to any in Vietnam.” That year 

approximately 10,600 Air Guardsmen 

were called into federal service.

Just prior to Tet, the North Koreans 

seized the electronics surveillance ship 

Pueblo as it cruised near the Korean 

coast. President Johnson, contending 

with Vietnam, sought a diplomatic 

resolution to that crisis. However, he 

sent Air Force tactical aircraft to South 

Korea and mobilized air and naval 

reservists. That crisis prompted the third 

partial Air Guard mobilization since the 

end of World War II and eventually two 

ANG fighter squadrons were dispatched 

to South Korea. However, the Pueblo 

crisis ended without a resort to combat.

The Total Force

Based largely on the Air Force’s experience 

with its own reserve components, the 

Pentagon adopted the total force concept 

in 1970. Dr. Theodore Marrs, an 

enthusiastic former Air Guardsman who 

served as a high ranking civilian official 

in the Air Force and the Department of 

Defense in the early 1970s, received much 

of the credit for developing it. Reserve 

forces planning and policymaking were 

influenced by total force ever since. The 

concept sought to strengthen and rebuild 

public confidence in the reserves while 

saving money by reducing the size of the 

active duty force. In practical terms, the 

total force policy sought to insure that all 

policymaking, planning, programming, 

and budgetary activities within Defense 

considered active and reserve forces 

concurrently and determined the most 

efficient mix of those forces in terms of 

costs versus contributions to national 

security. The policy also insured that 

Reservists and Guardsmen, not draftees or 

volunteers, would be the first and primary 

source of manpower to augment the active 

duty forces in any future crisis.

During the early 1970s necessity 

forced Air Guardsmen to scramble for 

other aircraft and more viable missions 

while managing, with congressional 

help, to scuttle the proposed deactivations of several ANG units. Because of 

force structure reductions, a significant 

number of older C-130 Hercules tactical 

airlifters became available for the Guard 

and Reserve. In April 1970 California’s 

115th Tactical Airlift Squadron 

acquired C-130As, becoming the first 

ANG unit to be equipped with that 

aircraft. Nevertheless, Guard leaders 

fought hard but failed to retain the 

strategic airlift mission. That situation 

caused members of the National Guard 

Association Executive Council to 

publicly question whether or not the 

active force really accepted it as a full 

13 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

“All four Guard squadrons in South 

Vietnam had convinced everyone—

particularly the Vietcong—that they 

were highly qualified professionals 

with a zest and enthusiasm equal 

to any in Vietnam.”
14

partner under the auspices of the total 

force concept. 

Congress eventually came to the 

aid of the Guard’s hard-pressed airlift 

community. In June 1979 the 137th 

Tactical Airlift Wing, Oklahoma, 

marked the first time an ANG airlift 

unit was equipped with brand new 

transport aircraft: it received four factoryfresh C-130Hs. Several years later 

Congress institutionalized the practice 

of purchasing limited amounts of new 

weapons and equipment for the reserve 

components. Under the auspices of a 

separate appropriation for Guard and 

Reserve equipment established in 1982, 

69 brand new C-130s entered the ANG’s 

inventory from 1984 to 1991. 

Air Force opposition to giving the 

Guard and Reserve jet tankers changed in 

the early 1970s because of technological 

progress and post-Vietnam defense budget 

cuts, transforming the Guard’s role in air 

refueling. In July 1972 Air Guard units 

began supporting Air Force tanker task 

forces overseas with planes and volunteer 

crews when needed. Triggered by a 1974 

decision by Secretary of Defense James 

R. Schlesinger to save money, Ohio’s 

145th Air Refueling Squadron acquired 

the ANG’s first jet tanker in April 1975 

when it began converting from KC-97Ls 

to KC-135As. Altogether, the Air Force 

transferred 128 older KC-135s to the air 

reserve components. Lieutenant General 

Richard L. Lawson, the Eighth Air 

Force commander and one of the former 

opponents of giving the Guard tankers, 

observed in 1977: “There is no such a thing 

as a ‘weekend warrior’ in my judgment ... 

aircrews from Guard units ... are standing 

... shoulder-to-shoulder, same facilities, 

same ground rules, same requirements as 

their active duty counterparts.”

In 1973 President Richard M. Nixon 

instituted the all-volunteer military. 

Without the draft, the need to secure 

additional sources of manpower became 

apparent. That produced two major social 

transformations in the National Guard: it 

became a racially integrated organization 

and women joined in significantly greater 

numbers. As late as June 30, 1971, 

the Air Guard had only 888 African 

Americans (1.01 percent) and 1,456 other 

minorities (1.66 percent) in its ranks. It 

faced a daunting challenge augmenting 

minorities first, because of the Guard’s 

established emphasis on obtaining trained 

prior service veterans. Second with 

pressure to produce diversity throughout 

the American workforce, the Guard 

competed with other military services and 

the private sector for minority recruits 

who possessed high levels of education 

and advanced technical skills. As a result 

ANG experienced a comparative dearth 

of qualified applicants. However, the 

new emphasis on recruiting underserved 

populations brought total ANG minority 

membership to 12,856 personnel (13.8 

percent) by September 30, 1979.

The Air Guard experienced its 

second major social transformation 

regarding women. Less than one percent 

of the Air Guard consisted of women 

when the draft ended. Moreover, women 

had been excluded completely from 

the Air National Guard until 1956 

when President Eisenhower authorized 

the appointment of female nurses. In 

October 1956 Captain Norma Parsons 

Erb became the first female to join the 

National Guard. That month she entered 

the New York ANG as a nurse and rose 

to the rank of colonel before retiring in 

1986. However, women could not enter 

the Air Guard in non-nursing fields until 

November 1967 when Congress removed 

a two percent personnel strength and 

rank ceiling limitations imposed by the 

Women’s Armed Services Act of 1948. 

Consequently, on July 1, 1968, the 

U.S. Air Force Airman Paula Toay (left) the first female unit member assigned to the North Dakota Air 

National Guard, gets help with her 5.56 mm M16A1 rifle, from Air National Guard instructors during 

a marksmanship course at Hector Field, North Dakota. (U.S. Air Force Photo.)
National Guard Bureau authorized the 

states to enlist and appoint women to 

nonmedical positions. 

The Air Force finally admitted 

women to flight training in 1976. In 

January 1978 the Air Guard claimed its 

first female pilot when Second Lieutenant 

Marilyn Koon pinned on her silver 

wings and joined Arizona’s 161st Aerial 

Refueling Group. In April 1992 Colonel 

Roberta V. Mills of the Tennessee ANG 

became the first Air Guard assistant to 

the head of the Air Force Nurse Corps. 

On April 8, 1992, she became the first 

woman ever promoted to general officer 

rank in the National Guard. In the mid1980s, women were flying every type of 

Air Force aircraft. By spring 1986, the 

Air Guard had 12,551 women (11.4 

percent) and minority representation 

had increased to 16,130 (14.6 percent).

During the 1980s changes in the Air 

Guard’s force structure and readiness 

were primarily driven by President 

Ronald Reagan’s military buildup and 

the need to prepare for a possible war 

between the North Atlantic Treaty 

Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw 

Pact in Central Europe. The ANG 

focused on modernization, more realistic 

combat training, increased readiness, 

and personnel growth, primarily in 

nonflying, mission support units. However, 

grassroots efforts by the states to increase 

the number of ANG flying units were 

rejected by the National Guard Bureau. 

Instead many units were allowed to 

increase the number of aircraft assigned 

to them when the Air Force made those 

planes available. The expiration of the 

Soviet Union, beginning with the fall of 

the Berlin Wall and Glasnost in 1989 and 

culminating in the USSR’s breakup into 

its republics in 1991, constituted a major 

upheaval that continued to influence 

global politics into the 21st century.

Under President George H. W. Bush 

the United States once again engaged 

in combat with the support of the Air 

National Guard. In December 1989 

and January 1990, ANG volunteers 

participated in Operation Just Cause, the 

invasion of Panama, to secure the arrest 

of Panamanian dictator and accused drug 

lord Manuel Noriega. The ANG had been 

conducting operations in Latin America 

since the late 1970s to defend the Panama 

Canal and to provide training support, 

embassy resupply, search and rescue, and 

counterdrug operations. In addition the 

ANG airlifted supplies and hardware to 

remote radar sites and performed aerial 

mapping operations. Crews already in 

Panama also participated in Just Cause. 

Air National Guard volunteer C-130 

crews completed 181 sorties moving 3,107 

passengers and 551.3 tons of cargo for 

Just Cause. Mississippi’s C-141-equipped 

172nd and C-5-equipped 105th Airlift 

Wing from New York also contributed. 

In addition, Air Guard A-7 Corsair II 

fighters from South Dakota’s 114th 

Tactical Fighter Group and Ohio’s 180th 

Tactical Fighter Group flew 34 combat 

missions in support of the invasion.

Belying Air Force doubts about Air 

Guard performance, and applying the 

same standards as active duty units, Air 

Guard units succeeded during operational 

15 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

The pilot of a 157th Tactical Fighter Squadron F-16A Fighting Falcon aircraft of the South Carolina 

Air National Guard prepares for a mission with the help of two ground crewmen. The 157th is one of 

several squadrons combined to form the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing (Provisional) during Operation Desert Storm. (Air Force Collection.)
16

readiness inspections. In Air Force-wide 

competitions, Guard units and individuals 

frequently placed high or won. For 

example, the South Carolina Air Guard’s 

169th Tactical Fighter Group garnered top 

team honors in the Air Force’s worldwide 

gunnery contest, Gunsmoke ’89. The Air 

Guard and the total force concept would 

be tested again in the major operations 

of the 1990s: Desert Shield and the first 

Gulf War, Desert Storm.

Desert Shield 

and Desert Storm

Following the seizure of Kuwait by Iraqi 

forces in August 1990, the Air Force 

turned to its reserve components for help 

and was swamped with volunteers. Before 

President Bush mobilized Reservists and 

Guardsmen on August 22, 1990, nearly 

1,300 Air Guardsmen actually entered 

active duty as volunteers. Initially, most 

of them concentrated on aerial refueling 

and airlifting American forces to the 

Persian Gulf region. The first two ANG 

units to volunteer before the president’s 

mobilization order were the 105th Military 

Airlift Group, New York ANG, and the 

172nd Military Airlift Group, Mississippi 

ANG. Respectively, they flew the C-5A 

and the C-141. KC-135 Tankers also 

participated in those early deployments. 

Those early volunteers helped the Air Force 

meet its operational commitments without forcing President Bush to announce a 

premature reserve mobilization.

Altogether, 12,456 Air Guardsmen 

participated in Air Force operations 

during the Persian Gulf crisis. When called 

upon, Air Guardsmen were immediately 

prepared to perform their missions 

alongside their active force counterparts. 

They did not need additional training or 

new equipment to do their jobs. They 

were integrated into most of the Air 

Force’s operational missions, flying airlift 

and aerial refueling sorties, and manning 

aerial ports. Guardsmen also flew attack, 

aerial reconnaissance, special operations, 

and tactical airlift missions. 

Relatively few ANG outfits were 

mobilized as units. Instead, the Air Force 

called up packages of equipment and 

personnel that were developed after the 

crisis began. While that created some 

problems when units found they needed 

the reassigned individuals, the Air Guard 

validated its approach to the total force 

policy during the Persian Gulf crisis. The 

resources and hard work of the 1980s paid 

off. Compared to previous mobilizations, 

ANG units and individuals were much 

better prepared to perform their missions 

upon entry into federal service. Units 

were well equipped and well trained. 

As planned, they were able to respond 

much more rapidly and effectively than 

in previous call-ups. They were integrated 

into operations with their active duty 

and Air Force Reserve counterparts with 

a minimum of disruption and delay. 

Once in federal service, they performed 

ably by any standard across a broad 

spectrum of missions. In contrast to early 

mobilizations, in most areas, Air Force 

leaders showed no reluctance to call on 

the Air Guard. While the availability of 

adequate active duty fighter resources 

limited the ANG’s participation in the 

first Gulf War, in at least two areas, airlift 

and aerial refueling, the contributions of 

the Air Guard and the Air Force Reserve 

were essential to the speed and the scope 

of the American military intervention in 

the Persian Gulf.

The roles played by the Air Guard in 

the Persian Gulf crisis defined it for a new 

era. Despite some misgivings because of 

the potential impact on unit morale and 

cohesion, the ANG had to be capable 

of responding to a broad spectrum of 

missions ranging from counterterrorism 

to regional conflicts and even a major 

war with the remnants of the Soviet 

Union. To do that it was prepared to 

tailor its responses to fit the situation 

and serve the needs of the active duty 

Air Force. Mobilizing entire flying units 

and maintaining their integrity while 

in federal service, although desirable, 

would no longer be the only acceptable 

approach to supporting the Air Force 

in a crisis. Instead the Air Guard would 

be flexible in its response in order to 

fit the situation. That could involve 

individual volunteers, tailored packages 

of volunteers, or mobilized Guardsmen 

developed in response to specific 

contingencies (“situations requiring 

military operations ... to protect US 

interests”). On the other hand entire 

units up to wing level could mobilize 

and operate as stand-alone units on 

austere bases. 

By validating the total force policy, 

the Air Guard strengthened its ability to 

play a major role in the post-Cold War 

U.S. military establishment. In the eyes 

of its senior leadership, the Air Guard’s 

military capability was no longer a 

significant question. The real concern, 

however, was the accessibility of Air 

Guard assets for repeated and extended 

federal callups in the new world order. 

Senior Air Force officials were concerned 

that volunteers would not always be 

available from the Guard when needed. 

As a result, the officials were often more 

comfortable with the idea of mobilization. 

Air National Guard leaders, on the 

other hand, feared that repeated callups, 

voluntary or mobilization, and long tours 

of active duty would drive airmen out of 

their units. Nevertheless by reinventing 

itself during the Persian Gulf conflict, 

the Air National Guard and its leadership 

sought to demonstrate to the Air Force 

that ANG assets would be available to 

augment the active duty force as a valued 

partner whenever needed. f
An Air Force A-10A Thunderbolt II aircraft from the 104th Fighter 

Group, Massachusetts Air National Guard, taxis on the runway at 

Aviano Air Base, Pordenone, Italy, to take off for NATO airstrikes 

against the Bosnian Serbs, September 6, 1995. (Photographer: 

TSgt Bruce Sherwood. Air Force Photo.)

17 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY

Volunteers

S

enior Master Sergeant Bob Myco crawled under the A-10 Thunderbolt 

at the end of the foreign runway, carefully performing a last-minute 

inspection. Also known as the Warthog, the Flying Gun, and the 

Tankbuster, the A-10 had as its mission ground attacks against tanks, armored 

vehicles and installations, and close air support of ground forces. Sergeant Myco 

looked for cuts in the tires, gas or oil leaks, and exterior panels that had not been 

properly secured. Weapons personnel removed safety devices from the aircraft’s 

missiles and the pilot was ready to launch. As the A-10 taxied to the runway,
Myco signaled thumbs up and saluted. A 

very long day later and 6,000 miles to the 

west, he wandered through the familiar 

base hangar where he had worked for 

40 years. Glancing at his watch—it was 

3:30 a.m. local time—Myco realized 

that he only had a few hours before he 

had to be ready for work. The Westfield, 

Massachusetts, school system was introducing its new superintendent. As a 

high school guidance counselor, Myco 

could not afford to be late. Like other 

members of the 104th Fighter Wing of 

the Massachusetts Air National Guard 

(ANG), Sergeant Myco had just spent 

part of his summer vacation launching 

aircraft from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on 

peacekeeping and combat missions over 

Bosnia. His unit had deployed to Italy 

between August and October 1995.

Myco’s experience had become 

increasingly common for Air Guardsmen 

as the United States struggled to cope 

with growing instability in the Balkans, 

Middle East, and Africa. The availability 

of significant numbers of well-trained, 

combat-ready units and individuals in 

the Air National Guard and the Air 

Force Reserve enabled a shrinking 

active duty Air Force to expand reserve 

participation in contingencies during 

most of the 1990s without involuntary 

recalls to active duty. Because of repeated 

activations during that decade and the 

high level of personnel stability in ANG 

flying units, a majority of them contained 

large numbers of personnel familiar with 

the Balkans and the unique operational 

requirements in that volatile part of 

the world. The growing involvement 

of Air Guardsmen in the Balkans and 

other contingency operations during 

the 1990s also marked another major 

stage in the gradual transformation of 

the ANG to an organization capable of 

both short notice mobilizations and long 

term voluntary augmentations of global 

Air Force operations while operating 

a broad range of modern weapons 

systems. Through 1999, despite some 

significant exceptions to the general 

pattern, most of that augmentation 

capability came from aviation packages 

of individuals from several Air Guard 

flying units. For Air Guardsmen, the 

growing pace of overseas operations 

intensified the competing demands of 

their families, civilian jobs, and military 

duties. Generally, those conflicting 

pressures were kept within acceptable 

bounds because the Guard stressed 

short—15 to 30 day—voluntary tours of 

active duty by traditional (i.e., part-time) 

Guard members and an increased reliance 

on the ANG’s growing complement of 

full-time support personnel.

Adapting the Force for the 

Post-Cold War Era

The breakup of the Soviet Union signaled 

the end of the Cold War. Looking toward 

a more peaceful future and eager to 

balance the budget, post-Gulf War U.S. 

defense policies produced major changes 

for the Air National Guard. Between the 

reduction of America’s active duty armed 

forces and the interventionist foreign 

policies of U.S. presidents, the ANG 

adapted its force structure, organization, 

equipment, and operating procedures to 

remain relevant to the military requirements 

of a new era. Instead of preparing only for 

conventional warfare—a World War III 

or a major regional conflict—the ANG 

recast itself as a major partner in the 

daily global operations of the Air Force. 

It modernized its weapons systems and 

added new missions to its portfolio. 

Relying primarily on volunteers, Air 

Guardsmen participated in actual, “real 

world” military operations on a daily 

basis to relieve the growing deployment 

burdens carried by active force personnel.

Following the first Gulf War, the 

Air Guard’s senior leadership in the 

National Guard Bureau began to adapt 

their organization for the post-Cold War 

era in a series of far-reaching discussions 

with top echelon Air Force personnel, 

state officials, unit leaders, and members 

of Congress. Essentially, the Air Force 

agreed it would attempt to retain all 

ANG and Air Force Reserve flying units 

while reducing its own as a cost-effective 

way to maintain a post-Cold War force 

structure. The Air Guard experienced a 

modest decline in assigned personnel from 

117,786 in September 1991 to 108,487 

by September 2001 while the number of 

uniformed active duty Air Force personnel 

shrank dramatically from 510,432 to 

353,751 during that same period. Driven 

by its growing involvement in real world 

operations, the acquisition of more 

sophisticated weapons systems, and the 

acceptance of new missions, the proportion 

of full time Air Guard personnel grew from 

28 percent in October 1991 to nearly 31 

percent 10 years later. 

To preserve its flying units in the 

face of increasingly tight budgets, the Air 

Guard’s senior leadership in the National 

For Air Guardsmen, the growing pace of overseas 

operations intensified the competing demands of 

their families, civilian jobs, and military duties. 

18
Guard Bureau decided that they would 

modernize their reserve component’s 

aircraft inventory. It would achieve that 

in several ways. As limited amounts 

of newer equipment became available 

from a smaller Air Force, and budgets 

tightened, the ANG would reduce the 

numbers of aircraft assigned to each unit. 

If necessary, it would combine units at 

the same locations. Some organizations 

would close down, but only as a last 

resort. Furthermore, the Air Guard 

leaders vowed to seek new missions. 

They emphasized that their organization 

must accomplish needed changes in a 

cooperative manner with the Air Force. 

The Guard depended on a healthy, active 

Air Force and it could not afford a bitter 

fight with that service over increasingly 

tight resources.

Aided by the newer aircraft from 

the shrinking Air Force inventory, the 

Air Guard modernized and reshaped 

its fleet after the Cold War. The size 

and composition of the ANG’s aircraft 

inventory changed significantly after 

1991. In September of that year it 

possessed 1,551 mission and support 

aircraft. That figure diminished to 1,180 

by December 2001. Accelerating a trend 

that had begun following the Korea War, 

the Air Guard continued to shift from 

a predominantly fighter force to one 

that incorporated units responsible for 

a broad spectrum of flying and combat 

support missions. Fewer and fewer 

combat aircraft were in that mix. From 

1991 to 2001 the ANG experienced 

an enormous growth in large aircraft 

including C-130s, KC-135s and B-1s at 

the expense of smaller fighter planes.

One of the most critical modernization 

challenges facing the ANG involved 

its extensive fleet of older model F-16s, 

especially the requirement to conduct 

precision attacks of ground targets 

around-the-clock in poor weather 

conditions. Historically, the Air Force 

had not adequately supported ANG’s 

requirements for that critical equipment. 

The Air National Guard consequently 

initiated an acquisition program with 

the Air Force Reserve Command to 

develop a new precision ground attack 

capability. As its goal ANG sought 

to acquire for F-16 Block 25/30/32 

aircraft, around-the-clock, all-weather, 

precision strike capabilities against 

surface targets. Northrop Grumman’s 

advanced technology LITENING II 

targeting pod met the specifications. 

The Air Guard’s participation in real 

world Air Force operations was a 

crucial factor in securing the support 

needed to obtain adequate numbers 

of targeting pods. In addition, ANG 

initiated programs to equip its fighters 

with computer data links, night vision 

goggles, and nighttime cockpit lighting. 

The first Air Guard F-16s equipped 

with LITENING II pods and night 

vision goggles deployed to Incirlik Air 

Base, Turkey, in September 2000 to 

participate in Operation Northern Watch, 

which enforced a no-fly zone over Iraq.

In addition, the Air Guard pursued 

relatively new or “sunrise” technologies 

and missions such as space operations. 

Air National Guard senior leaders and 

planners began evaluating ways to involve 

their organization in space missions as 

early as 1988. Because of hesitation by 

Air Force Space Command to accept 

such ANG initiatives, Air Guard 

leaders launched a “full court press” to 

educate Space Command leadership 

on the ANG’s space potential. Success 

came when the 137th Space Warning 

Squadron of the Colorado Air National 

Guard was activated at Greeley on 

19 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Air National Guard personnel use forklifts to unload pallets of cargo from a C-130 Hercules aircraft in 

Split, Croatia, December 1, 1994. (Air Force Photo.)
20

January 21, 1996. By the end of 2000 

the Air Guard boasted three more units 

with space-related missions. 

Another major change involved 

organizational formats. The ANG 

had long held that it should consist 

of self-contained units that operated 

and maintained their own equipment. 

Historically, most of those units had 

been located at municipal airports, 

not Air Force bases. After General 

Lloyd Newton, commander of the Air 

Education and Training Command, 

requested assistance to help the Air 

Force train F-15 pilots, ANG established 

its first fighter training associate unit 

at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, on 

October 1, 1999. 

Establishing diversity within the Air 

Guard continued as a goal throughout 

the 1990s. However, its definition and 

methods changed depending on the 

ANG director. Major General Paul 

Weaver Jr., a transport and fighter 

pilot who led the Air National Guard 

from January 1998 to February 2002, 

put a particularly strong emphasis on 

diversity. He strengthened the Human 

Resources Quality Board and the role of 

Human Resources Advisers in the field 

in an effort to promote a more diverse 

Air Guard culture. Under General 

Weaver, the Diversity Office in the 

Personnel Division proclaimed as its 

goal: “to increase mission readiness in 

the Air National Guard by focusing on 

workforce diversity and assuring fair 

and equitable participation for all. The 

goal is to recruit, retain and promote 

men and women from every heritage, 

racial, and ethnic group.” By the end of 

1999, the Air National Guard was 8.7 

percent African-American, 3.3 percent 

Asian/Pacific Islander, and 5.3 percent 

Hispanic, in every case representing 

tiny increases from the beginning of the 

decade. Women, however, increased 

from 13.1 to 16.4 percent of the force.

Real World Operations

Following Operation Desert Storm, Air 

Guard personnel became increasingly 

engaged in helping the active duty 

armed services conduct operations 

around the globe. The 15-day active 

duty tour to support real world 

operations was popular with traditional 

(i.e., part-time) Air Guardsmen because 

it coincided with their required period 

of annual active duty for training and 

could be substituted for the latter. To 

prevent the Air Guard from becoming 

merely a manpower pool of individual 

replacements for active duty Air Force 

members, most Guard volunteers served 

in tailored “packages” of manpower and 

equipment provided by their units. That 

practice enabled ANG units to augment 

the increasingly hard-pressed Air Force 

yet still meet the civilian employment 

and family needs of its traditional 

members while avoiding the politically 

sensitive and bureaucratically complex 

mobilization process. 

Together Reserve and Guard troops 

contributed some 13 million days of duty 

to real world operations each year from 

1991 through 2000. Within the total Air 

Force, significant percentages of some 

of its most critical mission capabilities 

resided in its reserve components: e.g., 

64 percent of its tactical airlift, 55 

percent of its aerial refueling, 38 percent 

of tactical air support, and 27 percent 

of its strategic airlift in 2001. It seemed 

unlikely that the Air Force would ever 

take on even a small real world operation 

without calling upon the Air Guard and 

Air Force Reserve.

Air National Guard units had 

significant incentives to participate in real 

world operations. Especially for tankers 

and transports, such operations provided 

good training for Guardsmen. Their airlift 

and air refueling operations mirrored most 

of their war plan training requirements. 

Fighter units benefited from deploying 

and flying in hostile areas where they 

were occasionally threatened by ground 

fire from surface-to-air (SAM) missiles 

and antiaircraft artillery. However, like 

their active duty counterparts, Air Guard 

fighter pilots had to catch up on critical 

aspects of their combat training after they 

returned from overseas deployments. 

Such deployments also reminded senior 

American political and military officials of 

how important the Air Guard had become 

to the nation’s total military capacity in 

an era of diminished defense resources.

Although limited in scope, the 

practice of deploying Air Guard volunteers 

overseas on short active duty tours to 

support real world operations was already 

well established before the Cold War 

ended. For example, Air National Guard 

units equipped with KC-97L tankers 

Air National Guard senior 

leaders and planners began 

evaluating ways to involve 

their organization in space 

missions as early as 1988.
21 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

had refueled Air Force fighters in Europe 

from 1967 to 1977 with volunteers on 

short tours of active duty in Germany. 

During the 1970s ANG and Air Force 

Reserve flying units began serving short 

tours in Latin America.

In August 1990 ANG F-15 and 

F-16 fighter units initiated similar 

rotational service for Operation Coronet 

Nighthawk, the successor to Volant 

Oak, out of Howard Air Force Base, 

Panama. Those units monitored 

suspected airborne drug traffickers 

transiting Central America as well 

as the adjacent oceans. The ANG 

continued to play a significant role in 

counterdrug operations as the active 

duty Air Force concentrated its resources 

elsewhere. Beginning in 1989 the Air 

Guard deployed mobile ground-based 

radar assets to the Caribbean to help 

strengthen existing U.S. and host nation 

capabilities in the region. Eventually, 

the Air Guardsmen operated two radar 

sites in Colombia as well as one each 

in Ecuador and Peru. Each site could 

operate around-the-clock throughout 

the year. Although active duty Air Force 

officers commanded, the rest of the 

personnel were Air Guard volunteers. 

The radar sites were part of an Andean 

air interception strategy for illegal drugs 

developed by Headquarters, U.S. Air 

Force, in 1989. As the 1999 transfer of 

the Canal to Panama approached, the Air 

Guard began turning the operation over 

to contractors. The last Air Guardsmen 

completed their deployments to those 

South American sites in 1999.

The fighters assigned to South 

America were an exception. Although 

Air Guard airlift and tanker units were 

already routinely engaged in real world 

operations during the early 1990s, 

such was not the case with most of 

its large fighter force. Only 22 of 800 

ANG fighter aircraft were deployed 

outside the western hemisphere in 1993 

and 26 in 1994 to participate in real 

world operations. To lower potential 

barriers to greater ANG participation 

in such operations, especially by fighter 

units, the Air Guard worked around 

the existing Cold War era system of 

accessing its units. The ANG developed 

provisional or “rainbow” units of 

personnel and equipment from several 

organizations that came together for 

specific short-term deployments. In 

addition the Guard expanded the use of 

the mandatory 15-day annual training 

periods to involve Guardsmen in real 

world operations and promoted greater 

reliance on full-time ANG personnel in 

operational deployments. Most of the 

fighters overseas in the 1990s protected 

the Iraqi no-fly zones and were active in 

the Balkans.

Other overseas operations during 

the 1990s took Air Guardsmen to 

Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Haiti, 

and Rwanda to augment the Air 

Force in a series of contingencies and 

humanitarian relief operations. As in 

Latin America, units usually deployed 

volunteers overseas on short tours of 

active duty. Air National Guard and 

Air Force Reserve units would generally 

assume responsibility for an operation 

for 30 to 90 days, and then rotate their 

personnel on 15 to 30 day tours to a given 

location until the commitment ended. 

Despite the high level of personnel 

turnover, the training and the relatively 

high experience levels of those volunteers 

enabled them to function effectively in a 

wide variety of missions.

Testifying before a congressional 

committee in March 1996, Air Guard 

Director Major General Donald W. 

Shepperd explained how the ANG’s 

growing involvement in global military 

operations had changed the lives of its 

members. He stressed, “We used to stay 

home and train. We still do but we have 

taken on new roles.... In the old days, 

five overseas training deployments was 

a heavy year. This year we did twenty.” 

Shepperd added, “In the old days, the 

F-16ADFs from the 144th Fighter Wing, California Air National Guard, and the 119th Fighter Wing, North Dakota Air National Guard, at Howard Air 

Base, Panama, for Operation Nighthawk, June 1996. (Photo courtesy of Lt Col Steve Couchman, National Guard Bureau.)
22

Air Force was large enough to handle 

all but the largest contingencies. Now, 

we are called upon to supply major 

portions of our strategic transports 

and tankers immediately even for small 

contingencies. Our average aircrew 

participates 110-120 days per year 

with the Guard, our average support 

personnel 60-80.” Shepperd added 

that Guardsmen walked “a fine line of 

cooperation” between their families and 

their employers, on the one hand, and 

their willingness to participate in the 

ANG, on the other. He concluded, “Our 

job is to work carefully this balance.” 

One important measure of the 

growing demands placed upon Air 

Guardsmen was the sharp increase in 

the average number of workdays they 

performed above their minimum 39-day 

annual military obligation (i.e., 15 days 

of annual training and 12 weekends). 

That average participation figure grew 

from five additional workdays per 

Air Guardsman during Fiscal Year 

1990 to 27 in Fiscal Year 2001, a 540 

percent increase. Moreover, the Air 

National Guard’s percentage of total 

Air Force aircraft deployments for real 

world operations increased from 10 

to 50 percent. Despite its enormously 

increased level of activity, the Air 

Guard’s overall personnel retention rate 

remained steady at about 90 percent. 

Somalia, in Africa, provided the 

first major post-Cold War test of Air 

Guard volunteerism for real world 

operations. In it, the United States led 

an international coalition, approved 

by the United Nations (UN) Security 

Council, which intervened militarily 

to protect humanitarian relief efforts. 

Operation Provide Relief began in the 

summer of 1992 as an effort to alleviate 

famine in that country ravaged by a 

war between Somali tribal factions. In 

December, a new effort, Operation 

Restore Hope supplemented it to bring 

order and a secure environment that 

would lead to a political reconciliation. 

Those operations continued to run 

simultaneously and eventually came to 

be considered as one effort.

Air National Guard participation 

in Restore Hope began in August 1992. 

Originally an air refueling operation, 

Air Guard and Reserve tankers and 

crews based at Moron, Spain, helped 

maintain an air bridge that accelerated 

the movement of troops, supplies, and 

equipment from the United States to 

Somalia. Air Guard and Reserve C141s and C-130s flying from a base at 

Mombassa, Kenya, also delivered food 

and medicine to Somalia. Because of the 

state of anarchy on the ground, aircraft 

flew in and out of the country as quickly 

as possible, unloading cargo with engines 

running, to avoid any threats to aircraft 

and crews. Altogether, the Air Guard 

contributed elements of eight airlift 

and 18 air refueling units to Somalia 

relief operations. Volunteer medical 

technicians from nine ANG aeromedical 

evacuation squadrons supported the 

operations from Cairo West, Egypt, 

and rotated into Mogadishu, Somalia, 

as needed. Volunteers from four Air 

Guard hospital units also served at Cairo 

West. In addition, Air National Guard 

Security Police from three squadrons 

participated in the Somalia effort.

The American attempt to build 

an effective civilian government in 

Somalia fell apart after the famed 

“Black Hawk Down” incident that 

ended with 18 American soldiers killed 

and 84 wounded during a gun battle in 

Mogadishu in October 1993. As a result 

President Bill Clinton’s administration’s 

support for that nation-building effort 

evaporated. In March 1994 the last 

American troops left Somalia and chaos 

returned to that nation. On the basis 

of the Somalia fiasco, many American 

military planners and senior officers 

concluded that force protection and few 

or no American casualties would be the 

principal criteria for gauging the success 

of future operations.

African relief efforts, however, continued. On July 22, 1994, President 

Clinton committed U.S. military forces 

to help provide relief to refugees from 

a civil war in Rwanda who had fled to 

neighboring countries. Between April 

Major General Donald W. Shepperd, Director, Air National Guard, visits with Air Guardsmen in the Balkans. (Air Force Photo.)
23 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

6, 1994, when the war began, and 

July 16, 1994, when it ended, Rwanda 

was engulfed in a genocidal killing 

spree that claimed up to 800,000 

lives, forced two million people to flee 

the country, and displaced another 

million individuals within its own 

borders. The United States and other 

nations initially refused to intervene 

militarily to stop the killing. However, 

by the end of July, American military 

personnel deployed to Africa to set up 

the infrastructure needed to provide 

U.S. support that would complement 

international humanitarian relief efforts. 

That mission focused on providing food, 

water, shelter, and health care to the 

refugees. Air Guardsmen participated 

in the Rwanda relief operations in 

two rotations from July 30, 1994, to 

November 15, 1994. Their C-130s flew 

915 sorties while logging 1,598.2 flying 

hours and delivering 4,515.8 tons of 

cargo and carrying 4,021 passengers.

While U.S. military personnel were 

participating in humanitarian relief 

efforts in Rwanda and neighboring 

states, a long running political crisis 

in Haiti finally came to a head. That 

impoverished Caribbean island nation 

had its democratically elected president 

ousted by a military coup in September 

1991. Three years later the military 

leaders were pressured to leave power. 

United States forces landed on the island 

to restore order and help reestablish civil 

institutions. The Air Guard responded 

within a few hours to Air Force requests 

for assistance to Haiti in Operation 

Uphold Democracy (later renamed 

Operation Maintain Democracy). The 

ANG provided volunteer aircrews and 

C-130 transports from 14 units to 

support the U.S. military intervention. 

Those Air Guardsmen completed 149 

sorties, carrying 324.3 tons of cargo 

and 824 passengers, while accumulating 

464.3 flight hours.

Balkan Blowback

In the early to mid 1990s most of the 

former communist nations in Eastern 

Europe pursued peaceful means to establish 

democratic forms of government, develop 

capitalist economic systems, and cultivate 

closer ties with NATO member states. But 

in a bloody blow back from the Cold War, 

Yugoslavia followed a radically different 

path. Marshall Josip Broz Tito had 

maintained Yugoslavia as a multiethnic 

communist state independent of the 

Kremlin’s control following World War 

II. After Tito’s death in 1980 that Balkan 

nation unraveled with the major conflict 

between the ethnic Serbian Christians and 

the Muslims of Bosnia. Following U.S. 

military intervention in the early 1990s 

to deal with the growing crisis, increasing 

Technical Sergeant Bill Feenstra arms an AIM 9 Sidewinder missile on an A-10A Thunderbolt from the 172nd Fighter Group, Michigan Air National Guard, 

prior to take off from Aviano Air Base, Pordenone, Italy. He is one of many Guardsmen who volunteered for Operation Deny Flight to enforce the United Nations no-fly zone over war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina, December 14, 1994. (Photographer: Sgt Mike Reinhardt. Air Force Photo.)
24

numbers of Air Guardsmen became 

involved in Operation Provide Promise in 

that turbulent corner of Europe.

In July 1992 crews and C-130s 

from West Virginia’s 167th Airlift Group 

inaugurated ANG involvement in 

Operation Provide Promise by flying 

food and relief supplies from RheinMain Air Base in Germany to Sarajevo, 

Bosnia’s capital, which had a population 

of 380,000. That operation expanded 

significantly the following February 

to included airdrops of food and 

medicine to Muslim enclaves in eastern 

Bosnia blockaded by Bosnian Serbs. 

Altogether, personnel and C-130s from 

12 ANG units participated in Provide 

Promise. During the operation, Air 

Force, ANG, and Reserve transports 

flew 4,533 sorties and delivered 62,802 

metric tons of cargo. They performed 

airlift, airdrop, and medical evacuation 

missions. The Americans made a major 

contribution to the overall allied effort, 

which involved airmen from 21 nations. 

The humanitarian airlift operation 

accounted for about 95 percent of the 

aid delivered during the three-and onehalf-year siege of Sarajevo. 

On April 2, 1993, NATO troops from 

Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, 

Spain, Turkey, Germany, and Italy 

as well as the United States launched 

Operation Deny Flight, a no-fly 

zone for Serbian aircraft over BosniaHerzegovina. It enforced a March 

1993 UN Security Council Resolution 

passed to help prevent the war from 

spreading. The operation also provided 

close air support to UN ground forces 

serving as peacekeepers, and air strikes 

against Serb weapons threatening UNdesignated safe areas in Bosnia. The 

first ANG fighter unit involved was 

Connecticut’s A-10-equipped 103rd 

Fighter Group. Aircraft and personnel 

from Maryland’s 175th Fighter Group 

and Michigan’s 110th Fighter Group 

joined the contingent from Connecticut. 

Along with unit personnel the six Air 

National Guard and six Air Force 

Reserve A-10s returned to their home 

stations in mid-January 1994 after 

flying 520 sorties and accumulating over 

1,400 hours of Deny Flight flying time. 

Air National Guard tanker support of 

Deny Flight began in June 1994 with 

the dispatch of 10 KC-135s and 18 

aircrews from six units to Istres, France, 

and Pisa, Italy. By the time Deny Flight 

ended on December 20, 1995, elements 

of seven Air Guard fighter and 11 air 

refueling units had participated in it. 

Ground fighting in BosniaHerzegovina escalated in the fall of 1994. 

Fearing the situation was spiraling 

completely out of control, the UN asked 

for NATO air strikes on Serbian forces. 

Those attacks began on November 21, 

1994, but were hobbled by UN targeting 

restrictions. Although the next month 

former U.S. President Jimmy Carter 

negotiated an uneasy cease-fire for the 

troubled region, it was broken in May 

1995 when other former Yugoslavians, the 

Croatians, recaptured western Slovenia 

from the Serbs. After that offensive chaos 

returned to the region. NATO initiated 

a bombing campaign, Operation 

Deliberate Force, in August 1995 after 

the Serbs shelled a Sarajevo marketplace 

killing 38 civilians and wounding 85 

more. A contingent from the 104th 

Fighter Wing participated in Operation 

Deliberate Force. The intensity of the 

bombing stunned the Serbs. Coupled 

with victories of an American-trained 

Croatian-Muslim army in western Bosnia, 

that operation forced the Serbs to sue 

for peace. NATO halted the bombing 

on September 14, 1995, and ended 

Deliberate Force six days later. Air 

Former Yugoslavia, 1996. (Central Intelligence Agency.)
25 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

power helped bring all sides to the peace 

table, but establishing a formal cessation 

of hostilities proved very difficult. An 

effective cease fire was finally instituted 

in October. The following month the 

presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and 

Serbia negotiated a peace agreement at 

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near 

Dayton, Ohio (the Dayton Accord). On 

December 14, 1995, the formal signing 

ceremony took place in Paris.

The Air Guard returned to the 

Balkans in the mid-1990s as part of the 

NATO-led peacekeeping force in Bosnia, 

Operation Joint Guard, and its successor, 

Operation Joint Forge. Volunteers from 

13 Air Guard airlift units provided 71 C130s to Joint Forge. On average, ANG 

airlift deployment packages consisted 

of approximately 75 personnel and 

two C-130 aircraft. They were based at 

Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to provide 

the necessary airlift support for U.S. 

military forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina 

and other locations across Europe. 

Rather than lock in commitments, 

tour lengths varied from several weeks 

to several months depending primarily 

upon the availability of volunteer Air 

Guardsmen. Air National Guard aircraft 

and personnel continued to serve in an 

operational pool of total force airlift 

assets assigned to the 38th Airlift 

Squadron (Provisional) at Ramstein Air 

Base. Although more expensive than 

longer deployments, the shorter tours 

held several advantages for the Air Guard 

C-130 units. They spread the burden 

giving a larger number of these units the 

operational expertise gained by European 

deployments while enabling them to 

maintain vigorous training programs in 

the United States that were critical to 

sustaining operational readiness. 

Volunteers and EC-130E Commando 

Solo aircraft from the Pennsylvania 

Air Guard’s 193rd Special Operations 

Group also supported Operation Joint 

Guard during 1997. The unit’s one-ofa-kind Commando Solo aircraft could 

conduct various kinds of information 

warfare including electronic attack and 

intelligence collection missions. For BosniaHerzegovina, however, it beamed in 

radio and television broadcasts. Air Guard 

combat communications and air traffic 

control organizations also contributed 

to NATO peacekeeping operations in 

the Balkans during the mid-1990s. 

Ultimately, not enough reserve air traffic 

controllers filled the void left by Air Force 

reductions for operations around the 

globe. The Air Force then used a form of 

limited mobilization called a Presidential 

Reserve Call-Up (PRC) for ANG units 

serving at Tazar, Hungary. The PRCs 

enabled the president, without obtaining 

congressional authority, to recall as many 

as 200,000 Guardsmen and Reservists 

to active duty for as long as 270 days to 

conduct operational military missions in 

a specific geographic area. Eventually, 

264 Air Guardsmen were called to active 

duty under PRC to support U.S. military 

operations in the Balkans.

The situation in Kosovo, Serbia, 

home to ethnic Albanians, in the late 

1990s was perhaps the worst of the 

Balkan conflicts. Operation Allied Force, as 

NATO’s response was called, began that 

year following the failure of diplomatic 

negotiations with Serbian President 

Slobodan Milosevic. During the 1980s he 

had stripped Kosovo of its autonomy and 

instituted repressive policies. A Kosovo 

Liberation Army (KLA) developed, 

which fought for independence. In 

March 1998 Serbian discrimination 

against Albanians turned into systematic 

government-sponsored violence against 

the insurgent KLA. Milosevic coined the 

term “ethnic cleansing” for his efforts 

to rid his country of all Albanians by 

promoting massacres of civilians and 

other acts of terrorism.

Once President Clinton decided 

upon military action, the Air Guard 

responded quickly. With only seven 

days elapsing between their call-up and 

deployment, Air Guard A-10 pilots began 

flying combat missions in Kosovo May 

21, 1999. A senior Pentagon military 

Staff Sergeants Steven Schreiner (left) and Shari Marsh, Refueling Squadron, 155th Air Refueling Wing, 

Nebraska Air National Guard, ensure a KC-135R Stratotanker is ready to relieve heavily tasked active 

duty units during Bosnia peacekeeping efforts, December 1, 1997. (Photographer: MSgt Rose S. Reynolds, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
26

official told media representatives that 

Air Guardsmen made an impressive 

combat debut. “The first night into 

the fight the Guard A-10s destroyed 

almost a dozen [Serbian] tanks and 

the same number of artillery pieces. 

It was a great show right off the bat.” 

Those 18 A-10s deployed to Europe as 

the 104th Expeditionary Operations 

Group, a “rainbow” unit of personnel 

and equipment from the 104th Fighter 

Wing, Massachusetts, 110th Fighter 

Wing, Michigan, and the 124th Wing, 

Idaho. The “rainbow” configuration was 

employed because no single ANG A-10 

unit possessed enough fighter aircraft 

to meet the United States European 

Command’s wartime requirements for 

Operation Allied Force. 

Allied Force was a relatively onesided military contest. The Serbs were 

isolated diplomatically and militarily and 

the tiny Serb air force could not challenge 

NATO. Moreover, allied airmen quickly 

destroyed or disabled the Serbian’s small 

inventory of MiG-29 fighters. From the 

outset of hostilities the alliance rejected 

using ground forces and went to great 

lengths to avoid casualties among its 

own aircrews and minimize enemy 

civilian deaths. American military leaders 

throughout the chain of command 

expected that two or three days of 

bombing would destroy Milosevic’s 

determination to resist NATO and the 

international community. Instead, the 

war lasted 78 days before ending on 

June 20, 1999.

President Clinton authorized an 

involuntary call-up on April 27, 1999, 

that included 25,000 Air Guard and 

Reserve personnel. In addition to 

the A-10 fighters, Air Guardsmen 

helped maintain the tanker air bridge 

over the Atlantic Ocean using KC-135 

aircraft and volunteer personnel to 

refuel U.S. military aircraft deploying 

to Europe. Air Guardsmen and Air 

Force Reservists also provided essential 

logistics, communications, and other 

ground-based support services and flew 

airlift aircraft during Operation Allied 

Force. While Serbian forces continued 

rampaging through Kosovo, NATO 

focused its escalating air attacks on 

Serbian industries, oil refineries, electrical 

power system, and bridges across major 

rivers as well as military installations and 

the economic resources of Belgrade’s 

ruling elite.

As in Bosnia the 193rd Operations 

Squadron from Pennsylvania provided 

two EC-130 Commando Solo aircraft 

to send broadcasts to the population 

below. Those Air Guardsmen participated 

in missions lasting about seven or 

eight hours and their ground support 

personnel worked 12 to 14 hours every 

day with no time off. By the time they 

redeployed to their home station on 

July 2, 1999, they compiled 735.7 

mission flight hours while logging 

1,338.7 broadcast hours. Altogether 

4,064 Air Guard personnel, including 

An A-10A from the Air National Guard’s 104th Expeditionary Operations Group is armed for a 

combat mission at Trapani Air Base, Sicily, Italy, during Operation Allied Force, 1999. (Air National 

Guard Collection.)

“The first night into the fight the Guard A-10s 

destroyed almost a dozen [Serbian] tanks and 

the same number of artillery pieces. It was a 

great show right off the bat.”
27 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

volunteers, and 83 fighter, tanker, 

airlift, and special operations aircraft 

were called into federal service for Allied 

Force serving both in Europe and in the 

United States.

Meanwhile in 1999 five ANG 

units deployed eight C-130s, crews, and 

support personnel to Bosnia-Herzegovina 

for Operation Joint Forge, a peacekeeping 

mission. Known as Delta Squadron, 

and operating out of Ramstein Air 

Base, Germany, 1,084 Air Guardsmen 

rotated through short active duty tours. 

Personnel from a large number of 

units in the ANG battle management 

community also participated either 

in Europe or remained at their home 

stations and trained personnel who did 

deploy. Air National Guard combat 

communications personnel and air 

traffic controllers also deployed to 

various locations. 

The establishment of a fragile peace 

in Kosovo did not end the political 

instability in the Balkans. American 

forces, including elements of the Air 

National Guard, continued to engage 

in peacekeeping operations along with 

their NATO allies and the Russians. 

The Air National Guard, bolstered 

by upgraded equipment, continued 

to serve in the Balkans into the 21st 

century. When the 167th Airlift Wing, 

West Virginia ANG, deployed for 

their three-week rotation to Ramstein 

Air Base in November 2001, aircrews 

successfully demonstrated their ability 

to conduct airdrops under adverse 

weather conditions using the Adverse 

Weather Aerial Delivery System and 

night vision goggles. The 167th Airlift 

Squadron crews successfully delivered 

troops via parachute and airdropped 

cargo over obscured targets at night.

Operation Southern Watch

After the first Gulf War ended in 1991, 

air power played a significant role in 

containing Saddam Hussein’s regime 

in Iraq, as did a naval blockade and 

United Nations economic sanctions. 

Together those forces also crippled the 

economic and military foundations 

of Hussein’s power. The Air National 

Guard participated widely in that long 

campaign, which featured U.S. and 

Four F-16C Block 40 Fighting Falcon aircraft assigned to the 188th Fighter Squadron, 150th Fighter Wing, New Mexico Air National Guard, carrying 

LANTIRN targeting pods, start engines prior to missions, at Ahmed Al Jaber Airbase, Kuwait, during Operation Southern Watch, April 21, 1998. (Photographer: A1C Greg L. Davis, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
28

coalition aircraft maintaining two no-fly 

zones over portions of Iraq: Operation 

Southern Watch and Operation 

Northern Watch. In addition, ANG 

provided humanitarian aid to the 

Kurdish population in northern Iraq. 

Encouraged by American calls for 

regime change in Baghdad after Iraq’s 

crushing military defeat during Operation 

Desert Storm, Muslims in the southern 

part of Iraq rebelled against Saddam 

Hussein. The Iraqi military and police 

forces savagely repressed the uprising, 

killing tens of thousands of Shiites. When 

those armed assaults continued despite 

diplomatic protests, President George 

H. W. Bush announced on August 26, 

1992, that a coalition of UN forces would 

launch air surveillance operations below 

Iraq’s 32nd parallel south to ensure that 

no Iraqi fixed wing aircraft or helicopters 

flew over that area. Air Guardsmen, 

serving as volunteers, played significant 

roles in enforcing the southern nofly zone. From January 1993 through 

September 1999, the ANG provided five 

percent of the average monthly total Air 

Force aircraft deployed to the Persian 

Gulf for Operation Southern Watch. 

The corresponding Air Guard 

data from October 

1999 through September 11, 2001, was 

16 percent.

As Operation Southern Watch 

continued, U.S. Central Command 

requested assistance from the Air Guard 

and Air Force Reserve for areas in which 

the Air Force lacked the manpower to 

meet the growing demands placed upon 

them. The first Air Guard Southern 

Watch contingent included volunteers 

and C-130s from North Carolina’s 145th 

Airlift Group, and Georgia’s 165th 

Airlift Group. Most of those deployed 

Air Guardsmen were volunteers on 

short tours (15 to 30 days) of active 

duty. In addition, personnel and HH60 Pave Hawk combat search and rescue 

helicopters from Alaska’s 210th Rescue 

Squadron, California’s 129th Rescue 

Squadron, and New York’s 106th 

Rescue Squadron joined them, usually 

on 100 day tours. 

Air National Guard fighters also 

began to deploy to southern Iraq in 

1993. The Idaho ANG’s 124th Fighter 

Group deployed six F-4G Phantom 

II Wild Weasel aircraft to the Persian 

Gulf. One of only two such units 

remaining in the total Air Force, it 

deployed for six months to perform 

against enemy air defense missions. To 

minimize the impact on the 

124th traditional 

Air National Guard members while 

meeting a critical Air Force tasking, 

almost three quarters of the personnel 

who participated in that deployment, 

including almost half of the pilots, were 

full-time Air Guardsmen. Members 

of the 124th Fighter Group, at the 

request of the Air Force, volunteered for 

additional tours in Southwest Asia that 

lasted until July 1994. 

After two years of relative quiet 

due at least in part to the presence of 

American fighter aircraft, in October 

1994, Baghdad began moving ground 

troops toward its border with Kuwait. 

Additional coalition forces moved into 

the area and stepped up their surveillance 

operations. The total number of U.S. 

military personnel in theater rose to 

over 25,000 and the Air Force increased 

its aircraft in the area to more than 270 

to deal with the growing threat. Some 

265 ANG and Air Reserve volunteers, 

including 22 aircrews and 15 KC-135E 

Stratotankers quickly provided an air 

bridge to the Azores, in the Atlantic 

Ocean off the coast of Europe, to speed 

the movement of U.S. military aircraft 

to the Persian Gulf region. Giant C-5A 

Galaxies from the 105th Airlift Group, 

New York ANG, flew sorties in support 

of those operations. The United States 

declared the area a no-fly, no-drive zone 

after Iraq assembled troops on 

its border with Kuwait. To 

implement that policy, 

a Joint Task 
29 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Force Southwest Asia was established by 

the United States Central Command. 

Units from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. 

Navy, and U.S. Army as well as 

Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, and later 

Kuwait enforced the southern no-fly 

zone. Coalition members contributed 

fighter patrols against potential targets, 

reconnaissance, suppression of enemy 

air defenses, air refueling, and special 

operations missions. 

Portions of Air National Guard A-10 

units from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and 

Connecticut deployed to Kuwait to form 

a “rainbow” unit primarily to conduct 

combat search and rescue support for any 

downed airmen and to attack Iraqi tanks 

if needed. Most ended up participating 

in what were essentially training missions 

outside of Iraq. However, Maryland’s 

104th Fighter Squadron flew 283 sorties 

over enemy territory and employed air-tosurface Maverick missiles successfully to 

destroy an Iraqi surface-to-air missile and 

a radio station during the operation. 

After qualifying to employ AGM65 Maverick missiles, elements of 

Pennsylvania’s 111th Fighter Wing 

deployed during 1994 to Al Jaber Air 

Base, Kuwait, for three months with 

12 of their OA-10 aircraft, the first 

ANG Warthogs to be based in that 

part of the world. The unit’s pilots 

pioneered two key innovations on 

their aircraft to deal with challenges of 

navigating southern Iraq’s vast barren 

landscape and rules of engagement 

that required high altitude flying. First, 

they used portable Global Positioning 

System (GPS) satellite navigation units 

mounted in their cockpits. Second, they 

employed powerful video-stabilized 

binoculars that they had tested on their 

own initiative to identify targets. With 

such a strong display of force by U.S. 

combat aircraft and the dispatch of an 

additional 12,000 ground troops to the 

area, Hussein withdrew his forces from 

Iraq’s southern border.

Reacting to growing operational 

demands placed on Air Force F-16 units, 

the Air Combat Command approved a 

plan in October 1995 to dispatch ANG 

Fighting Falcon units to Operation 

Southern Watch on 30-day rotations. 

The following March the District 

of Columbia ANG’s 121st Fighter 

Squadron, 113th Wing became the first 

ANG F-16 unit to deploy to the Persian 

Gulf region for that operation. About 

90 volunteers, including 10 pilots, 

went to the Middle East with six F-16C 

Block 30 aircraft. Before returning to 

their home station in April, pilots from 

the 121st accumulated 400 flight hours 

and over 100 combat sorties.

Air Force and Navy aircraft attacked 

targets in southern Iraq on September 

3, 1996, in response to Iraqi military 

moves against the nation’s Kurdish 

population in the north. In retaliation 

for attacks on the Kurds, President 

Clinton also expanded the southern nofly zone placing it just south of Baghdad. 

Combined with the northern no-fly 

zone enforced to protect the Kurds, the 

expanded Operation Southern Watch 

ensured that little airspace remained for 

the Iraqis to use without confronting 

U.S. and coalition aircraft. 

During 1996 and 1997, volunteers 

from Guard airlift and fighter units 

continued to deploy to Iraq for short 

tours of duty. Saddam Hussein in 

A U.S. Air Force F-16C Block 42 Fighting Falcon aircraft assigned to the 138th Fighter Wing, Oklahoma Air National Guard, takes off for a mission at 

Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, during Combined Task Force/Operation Northern Watch, November 17, 2002. (Photographer: SSgt Jason W. Gamble, 

USAF. Air Force Photo.)
30

late 1997 refused to allow UN arms 

inspectors to have unrestricted access 

to sites in Iraq suspected to be involved 

with the production of weapons of 

mass destruction. As a result, the United 

States increased its air and naval 

forces in the region to deal with that 

crisis, code named Desert Thunder. 

Air National Guard tanker task forces 

operated in Alaska, Washington State, 

New Hampshire, and Maine as well as 

in Southwest Asia to support it. That 

operation was terminated in early 1998 

when diplomacy temporarily resolved 

the crisis. During that year, five tanker, 

four airlift, and five fighter units from 

the Air Guard furnished personnel 

and aircraft to the Joint Task Force 

Southwest Asia. Operation Desert Fox 

took place in mid-December 1998 when 

Saddam Hussein declared the no-fly 

zones as violations of Iraq’s sovereignty, 

expelled the UN weapons inspectors, 

and instructed his air defense batteries 

to more aggressively attack coalition 

aircraft. The Air National Guard helped 

maintain an air bridge to the Persian 

Gulf region as they had throughout the 

mid-1990s.

Operation Northern Watch

Similar to the situation faced by Iraq’s 

Shiites in the south, that nation’s repressed 

Kurdish population in the north was 

encouraged to rise up against the brutal 

regime of Saddam Hussein by American 

radio broadcasts after Operation Desert 

Storm. When the Kurds rebelled in March 

1991 the United States refused to provide 

direct military assistance and their uprising 

was crushed by Iraqi forces. Over one 

million Kurds fled Iraq, but thousands 

more were trapped in the cold, barren 

mountains of the northern region of that 

nation when neighboring countries closed 

their borders. Deprived of adequate food, 

water, and shelter, untold numbers of them 

died. The UN Security Council authorized 

a relief effort to save the Iraqi Kurds, and 

the U.S. Air Force played a significant role. 

A coalition led by the United States then 

deployed military forces on the ground in 

northern Iraq, built resettlement areas for 

the Kurds, and established a security zone 

that excluded Saddam Hussein’s forces. 

Coalition fighter aircraft and supporting 

planes enforced that no-fly zone for the 

Iraqis above the 36th parallel and covered 

friendly ground forces. 

On November 12, 1993, Chairman 

of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General 

John M. Shalikashvili, U.S. Army, 

requested that the Air National Guard 

and Air Force Reserve participate in 

Operation Provide Comfort II, the 

predecessor of Operation Northern 

Watch, to help alleviate the growing 

operational burden placed on active 

duty Air Force personnel. The resulting 

“rainbow” unit of four ANG fighter 

squadrons trained together and in 

December 1993, equipped with F-16C 

Block 30 aircraft, arrived at Incirlik Air 

Base, Turkey. The “rainbow” concept 

was adopted because Guardsmen were 

convinced that none of their individual 

general purpose F-16 units had enough 

aircraft and personnel available at that 

time to sustain the deployment on a 

volunteer basis without undermining 

their operational training and retention 

programs in the United States.

Once in theater, the Air Guardsmen 

flew daylight defensive counter air, escort, 

and reconnaissance missions enforcing 

the no-fly zone over northern Iraq during 

daylight hours. Usually, the aircraft were 

configured with electronic counter 

measure pods, external fuel tanks, cluster 

bombs, and antiaircraft missiles. Missions 

typically lasted about three hours and 

included a minimum of one in-flight 

refueling per sortie. The volunteer rate in 

the deploying fighter units was extremely 

high. The 184 Guard volunteers and 

their 11 warplanes started returning to 

their stateside bases on January 15, 1994. 

Their senior leadership saw the success of 

those “rainbow” deployments as a further 

validation of the ANG fighter force’s 

accessibility, readiness, willingness, 

Their senior leadership 

saw the success of those 

“rainbow” deployments as a 

further validation of the ANG 

fighter force’s accessibility, 

readiness, willingness, and 

capability to accomplish 

real-world taskings. 
31 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

and capability to accomplish realworld taskings. 

On January 1, 1997, Operation 

Northern Watch replaced Provide 

Comfort II. Aircraft from the United 

States, Britain, and Turkey participated 

in the new operation that was focused 

strictly on enforcing the no-fly zone 

above the 36th parallel in Iraq as 

mandated by the UN and did not include 

humanitarian relief for the Kurds. 

The Turkish government continued to 

approve six-month extensions for coalition 

operations from its territory, but insisted 

that it would not allow Northern Watch 

to become a permanent mission.

During the late 1990s, the dangers 

associated with air operations over 

northern Iraq increased because Hussein’s 

forces adopted a more aggressive strategy 

against coalition aircraft. Exploding 

surface-to-air missiles and antiaircraft 

artillery fire had become a commonplace 

challenge for coalition pilots. Despite 

the increased aggression and potential 

threats pilots faced, U.S. policy makers 

did not alter the level of air activity 

over the two no-fly zones. Coalition 

forces returned fire more than 200 times 

between early 1999 and May 2001. By 

the summer of 2001, Saddam Hussein 

had instituted a standing bounty on 

American and British pilots whose 

planes were destroyed.

The northern and southern no-fly 

zones over Iraq were generally considered 

effective in advancing U.S. foreign policy 

interests in that part of the world. They 

discouraged Iraq from mounting another 

invasion of Kuwait, saved thousands of 

Kurdish lives, reduced hostile ethnic 

pressure on Turkey, and reminded 

Saddam Hussein how vulnerable his 

regime was to air attacks.

The Expeditionary Force 

Concept

In August 1998 the Air Force inaugurated 

a new concept. It organized more than 

2,000 aircraft including those of reserve 

units into 10 Air Expeditionary Forces 

(AEFs), also known as the Aerospace 

Expeditionary Forces and in 2007, the 

Air and Space Expeditionary Forces. 

They would rotate in order to ease 

the strain of increased post-Cold War 

operations overseas. Volunteer members 

of Ohio’s 179th Airlift Wing and 

Kentucky’s 123rd Airlift Wing deployed 

in 1999 to Oman as the first members 

of the Air Guard C-130 community to 

deploy for Operation Southern Watch 

under AEF auspices. 

The Air Directorate in the National 

Guard Bureau (NGB), convinced that their 

reserve component’s continued viability 

depended upon its active participation 

in the AEF, played a significant role 

in developing the ground rules for the 

use of air reserve components. For the 

Air Guard’s senior leadership, adequate 

funding, modern weapons, training 

slots in Air Force schools, and all the other 

resources needed to sustain a modern 

expeditionary air combat organization 

at high levels of operational readiness 

would require heavy involvement in 

those forces. The well established practice 

of relying on short, voluntary tours of 

traditional Guardsmen and Reservists 

overseas inspired the key ideas under 

the leadership of the Director of the Air 

National Guard, Major General Paul 

A. Weaver, Jr. From experience the Air 

Directorate of the National Guard Bureau 

preferred to allow the reserve components 

to develop their own force packages, 

including “rainbow” deployments, to meet 

operational requirements. Those practices 

were also consistent with the established 

two-week annual training requirements of 

the air reserve components. Mobilizations 

and long overseas tours were generally 

ruled out at that point, except for major 

theater conflicts.

For the Air Guard, the AEF promised 

to spread the burden of deployments more 

widely among flying units. Moreover, 

the timing of rotations became more 

predictable. Greater predictability would 

enable their members to better manage 

the competing demands of families, 

civilian careers, and military service. The 

biggest change came regarding support 

units, which would be included in 

volunteer overseas rotations on a regular 

basis. Air Guard aviation units would be 

expected to deploy overseas once every 

15 months while support units would 

do so at 30 month intervals. Driven by 

those requirements, Air Guard planners 

in the National Guard Bureau began 

to “reengineer” ANG units to better 

participate in their expeditionary roles. 

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen 

bolstered the initiative in September 

1997 by requiring the armed forces to 

remove barriers to fully integrating their 

reserve components in the full range of 

military operations.

Exemplifying the new policy, in 2000, 

three F-15, six F-16, and three A-10 units 

participated in four different multiunit 

Coalition forces returned 

fire more than 200 times 

between early 1999 and 

May 2001. 
32

ANG “rainbow” deployments to the 

Persian Gulf region that lasted about 

three months each. The experience of 

the Texas 147th Fighter Wing illustrated 

those rotations. It split a 90-day Air Guard 

commitment with two other ANG F-16 

units, New Jersey’s 177th Fighter Wing 

and Vermont’s 158th Fighter Wing. The 

Texas unit sent about 150 personnel and 

two F-16Cs to Prince Sultan Air Base in 

Saudi Arabia. Most American troops in 

Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, relocated 

to that isolated base following a terrorist 

bombing of U.S. Air Force barracks at a 

more urban Saudi Arabian base on June 

15, 1996, that killed 19 airmen and 

wounded 547 others. Responsible for 

the middle portion of that deployment, 

those units relied primarily on F-16s 

provided by the New Jersey and Vermont 

ANGs. The Texas Air Guard unit sent 10 

new pilots every two weeks to expose as 

many of their aircrews as possible to the 

challenges of combat flying.

Despite some administrative glitches 

and lingering pockets of skepticism in 

the active force and some state National 

Guard organizations, the consensus of 

the Air Guard’s senior leadership was 

that the ANG’s participation in the AEF 

was very successful. In particular, the Air 

Guard considered routine participation 

in AEF deployments critical to the 

survival and flourishing of its units as 

highly capable military organizations 

relevant to the evolving American 

national security requirements.

Therefore, by the eve of a new 

presidential administration in 2001, the 

Air National Guard proved itself as part 

of an operational total force. Its airlift 

capabilities, tankers, and fighters not only 

filled in gaps in the active duty Air Force, 

but comprised an essential component 

of overseas operations in Africa, the 

Balkans, and Southwest Asia. Similarly, its 

combat search and rescue personnel and 

its psychological operations Commando 

Solo aircraft proved their worth. With the 

implementation of the AEF after 1998, 

growing numbers of support units joined 

operational organizations in regular, 

relatively short voluntary rotations. As a 

result, the Air National Guard integrated 

seamlessly with the active duty Air Force 

while preserving its militia culture, unit 

integrity, and high level of operational 

readiness. However, it was about to face 

new and unexpected set of challenges as 

the new century dawned. f

169th Fighter Wing Aircraft Generations Squadron, McEntire Air National Guard Station, South Carolina, personnel loading an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and other equipment onto an F-16CJ aircraft deployed at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey. The 169th Fighter Wing was deployed in 

Aerospace Expeditionary Force #4 during Operation Northern Watch. It was the first ANG F-16 unit equipped with Suppression of Enemy Air and Defenses 

(SEAD) technology, January 19, 2000. (Photographer: SSgt Richard Hodges. Air Force Photo.)
AMERICA ATTACKED

The Pentagon in flames after terrorists flew a hijacked jet liner into the building at approximately 

9:30 am on September 11, 2001. (Photographer: 

CPL Jason Ingersoll, USMC.)

33 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

T he defining events for the Air National Guard (ANG) as well as for 

the United States occurred with the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 

2001. When President George W. Bush took office in January, 2001, 

however, the nation seemed quite secure. The Bush administration’s Secretary of 

Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, also held that position under President Gerald Ford. 

A former Navy pilot and four-term congressman, Secretary Rumsfeld returned 
to the U.S. government after 23 years 

as the successful head of several 

major corporations. His corporate career 

convinced the new secretary that he 

knew how to make a large organization 

like the Department of Defense move and 

adapt to changing circumstances including 

dramatic developments in science and 

high technology. 

Secondly, the new secretary was put off 

by what he perceived as the cautious, risk 

adverse approach of military leaders who 

had cut their professional teeth during the 

Vietnam War. He believed their mindset 

focused on winning large, conventional 

armed conflicts against other nations. 

With the disappearance of the Soviet 

military machine and the emergence 

of the United States as the world’s only 

superpower, Secretary Rumsfeld doubted 

that any such convenient enemies would 

ever present themselves as sacrificial 

lambs to be easily destroyed by the 

awesome conventional and nuclear 

firepower of the U.S. armed forces. 

Assuming the nation had entered an era 

of deep peace with no peer competitors 

likely to challenge its military power 

for decades, Secretary Rumsfeld proclaimed his department would undergo 

a military transformation. The nation’s 

armed forces would reshape into 

smaller but more lethal and flexible 

formations that could deal with a broad 

spectrum of threats through increased 

mobility and greater reliance on stealthy, 

high technology, long-range stand-off 

weapons. Furthermore, fewer ground 

troops would be needed and some Cold 

War weapons systems would become 

obsolete. Aside from developing an 

antiballistic missile system, defending 

the homeland was not a major explicit 

priority of the administration.

The notion that the United States 

did not require a strong homeland defense 

capability actually began in the late 1960s 

with the growing realization that Soviet 

missiles, not bombers, posed the greatest 

threat to America. After the demise of the 

Soviet Union, remnants of America’s 

continental air defense system had been 

turned over to the Air National Guard. 

In 1991 the Air Force inactivated its last 

active duty fighter interceptor squadron, 

leaving that entire mission for fewer and 

fewer Air Guard fighter units to perform.

With no post-Cold War threat to 

the continental United States considered 

likely, the Department of Defense 

focused on conducting contingency 

and peacekeeping operations overseas. 

Regional unified U.S. commands had 

been established to conduct military 

An F-15 Eagle, from the 125th Fighter Wing, Florida Air National Guard, sits on alert armed with AIM120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, and AIM-9 Sidewinders after the terrorist attacks on the 

World Trade Center and the Pentagon. (Photographer: TSgt Shaun Withers, USAF. Air Force Photo.)

34

After the demise of the Soviet Union, remnants 

of America’s continental air defense system had 

been turned over to the Air National Guard.
operations in every other section of the 

world, but no counterpart American 

organization held responsibility for the 

coordinated land, sea, and air defense 

of the continental United States. The 

North American Aerospace Defense 

Command (NORAD) provided an 

integrated system for defending Canada 

and the United States against attacks 

by aircraft and cruise missiles while 

maintaining the air sovereignty of those 

nations, but it had no responsibilities 

for land and naval operations. First 

Air Force, which had responsibility 

for ensuring the air sovereignty and air 

defense of the continental United States, 

supported NORAD.* 

America Attacked

America’s post-Cold War sense of 

invulnerability evaporated on September 

11, 2001, when the al Qaeda terrorist 

network struck. The terrorists hijacked 

four cross-continental commercial airline 

flights laden with jet fuel and turned 

them into manned cruise missiles that 

killed over 3,000 people in New York 

City, Washington, DC, and a remote 

area of rural western Pennsylvania. It 

was the bloodiest single day in American 

history since the Civil War battle 

of Antietam that claimed over 24,000 

casualties. In the celebrated traditions 

of America’s colonial minutemen, the 

ANG played an immediate and critical 

role in the nation’s military responses to 

al Qaeda’s terrorism.

A terrorist act of that magnitude 

in the United States had not been totally 

unforeseen, but the military considered 

such an operation highly unlikely. After 

the coordinated bombing of two American 

embassies in Africa in 1998, the Federal 

Bureau of Investigation put al Qaeda head 

Osama bin Laden on its Ten Most Wanted 

Fugitives list. Officials also testified that a 

major attack could occur. For example, 

the Defense Intelligence Agency predicted 

there would be “a major terrorist attack, 

either in the United States or abroad, over 

the next 12 to 24 months ‘with a weapon 

designed to produce mass casualties.’”

The coordinated attacks on the World 

Trade Center and the Pentagon occurred 

between 8:46 and 9:37 a.m. Eastern 

Daylight Time; United Airlines Flight 

93 hit the ground in Pennsylvania at 

approximately 10:02 a.m. The only 

fighter units stationed within the entire 

northeastern United States belonged to 

the Air National Guard. At 8:38 a.m., 

the Federal Aviation Administration 

(FAA) in Boston, Massachusetts, reported 

a possible hijacking and called the Otis 

Air National Guard Base tower on 

Cape Cod, home to the Massachusetts 

ANG’s 102nd Fighter Wing, to request 

military assistance. At that time, Major 

Dan Nash and Lieutenant Colonel Tim 

Duffy had air defense alert duty for 

the 102nd At 8:40 a.m. Colonel Bob 

Marr, a Massachusetts Air Guardsman 

serving as NORAD’s Northeast Air 

Defense Sector commander, learned from 

the FAA that American Airlines Flight 

11 might have been hijacked. The 

two pilots immediately suited up and 

headed for their F-15s. Marr ordered 

Nash and Duffy into the air; their F15s were airborne within six minutes 

and as directed, headed for New York 

City, 153 miles away. Unknown to 

the pilots, American Airlines Flight 11 

crashed into the North Tower of the 

World Trade Center in New York City 

just as Colonel Marr was delivering his 

order. Meanwhile, at 8:43 a.m., the 

FAA reported another possible hijacking 

to the Northeast Air Defense Sector. 

That was Boston to Los Angeles United 

Airlines Flight 175. At 9:02 a.m., with 

the F-15s still 71 miles away, that plane 

crashed into the World Trade Center’s 

South Tower.

Aircraft hijackings were rare events 

in the United States. As long as no lives 

were endangered, airline crews and FAA 

air traffic controllers had been trained to 

cooperate with the hijackers. Hijackings 

were treated as civilian law enforcement 

matters, although the FAA could request 

that the military provide jet fighters and 

weapons controllers to monitor these 

situations. Normally, military assistance 

required a cumbersome process that 

involved the FAA forwarding the request 

through the national military command 

center and NORAD to the president or 

the secretary of defense. After approval a 

fighter would locate and follow a hijacked 

airliner from about five miles behind 

but not attempt to engage it.

Air National Guard weapons controllers 

at the Northeast Sector desperately searched 

for the first missing airliner but could 

only get momentary hits on a track that 

they thought might be it. Hampering 

35 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

*First Air Force and its NORAD counterpart, the Continental NORAD Region [CONR], were headquartered at 

Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. In 1997 the ANG assumed control of those two organizations from the Air Force. 

CONR was subdivided into three operational sectors at the time of the 9/11 attacks: the Southeast (Tyndall), the 

Northeast (Rome, NY), and the Western (McChord Air Force Base, Washington).

A terrorist act of that magnitude 

in the United States had not 

been totally unforeseen, but 

the military considered such 

an operation highly unlikely.
36

their search, air traffic in the skies over 

the United States was congested with over 

4,000 airplanes at any given moment, 

most in the northeast. Moreover, the 

hijackers turned off the electronic 

transponders that helped FAA controllers 

identify commercial airliners. Weapons 

controllers throughout First Air Force, in 

any case, had limited access to the FAA’s 

radar data from the nation’s interior. Their 

entire system focused on detecting and 

tracking aircraft entering North America’s 

airspace from overseas. It was virtually 

blind to flight activity within the continent 

leaving First Air Force unprepared to 

defend against attacks launched within 

the United States.

That morning’s events unfolded 

rapidly and were extremely confusing. 

As unconfirmed reports about hijacked 

aircraft and other terrorist threats flooded 

into military command centers and the 

civilian media, tension and fear grew. 

The Northeast Air Defense Sector 

happened to be participating in a 

semiannual exercise known as Vigilant 

Guardian, which according to ABC 

News, was designed to prepare for a 

Cold War-style Russian bomber attack. 

Therefore participants required emphatic 

commands that the hijackings were not 

part of the exercise. The defense sector, 

as a result, had a fully staffed command 

post including key officers and enlisted 

supervisors. Confronted by incomplete and 

often conflicting information, personnel 

at the Northeast Air Defense Sector and 

the rest of First Air Force relied on their 

professional skills while improvising 

responses to a nightmare scenario that 

few had predicted and no government 

organization, including the military, 

had prepared for. 

Throughout that morning the FAA 

ordered civilian aircraft to land. Even 

before that, Colonel Duffy, a traditional 

(i.e., part-time) Guardsman and civilian 

commercial airline pilot, and Major 

Nash established a combat air patrol over 

New York City and forced all nonmilitary 

aircraft to steer clear of the area. Someone 

they could not later recall directed them 

to shoot down any planes that failed to 

comply with their instructions to leave 

that airspace. Refueled by KC-135 

Stratotankers from Maine’s 101st Air 

Refueling Wing, the initial 102nd Fighter 

Wing’s F-15s were later joined by others 

from their unit, plus Air Guard F-16s 

from Vermont’s 158th Fighter Wing 

and New Jersey’s 177th Fighter Wing. 

According to Colonel Duffy, the F-15s 

escorted about 100 aircraft out of the area 

before returning to Otis after more than 

five grueling hours on patrol over New 

York City.

At 9:09 a.m. the pilots of North 

Dakota Air Guard F-16s of the 119th 

Fighter Wing were standing by, ready 

An F-15A Eagle from 102nd Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard, flies a Combat Air Patrol over New York City as part of Operation Noble 

Eagle. F-15s from the 102nd were the first to arrive on scene over the World Trade Center following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (Photo courtesy 

of 102nd Fighter Wing, Massachusetts Air National Guard.)
to launch, at Langley Air Force Base, 

Virginia, located about 130 miles southeast 

of Washington, DC. They were at their 

battle stations because of a growing 

general concern about the situation that 

morning. Seven minutes later the FAA 

reported that United Airlines Flight 93, 

outbound from Newark, New Jersey, 

to San Francisco, California, might also 

have been hijacked. The FAA notified 

the Northeast Air Defense Sector eight 

minutes later that American Flight 77, 

a flight from Dulles International Airport, 

Virginia, near Washington, DC, to Los 

Angeles, California, also appeared to be the 

victim of hijackers. At 9:24 a.m. Colonel 

Marr ordered three F-16s (two alert aircraft 

and a spare) scrambled from Langley to 

check out an unidentified intermittent 

aircraft track heading toward Washington, 

DC. In six minutes the Langley F-16s 

were airborne. 

In accordance with established 

NORAD procedures, the F-16s were 

initially directed to head northeast to 

avoid some of the most heavily traveled 

commercial airline routes rather than to 

fly directly to the Washington, DC, area. 

Major Dean Eckmann and Major Brad 

Derrig, plus Captain Craig Borgstrom of 

the 119th Fighter Wing were directed 

to fly at maximum subsonic speed, 

660 miles per hour. At about 40 miles 

away, they saw the billowing smoke 

of American Airlines Flight 77, which 

had crashed into the Pentagon at 9:43 

a.m. As the North Dakota Air Guardsmen 

neared Washington, DC, Major Eckmann, 

the flight lead, set up a patrol over the 

nation’s capital with the help of air traffic 

37 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

An Air National Guard F-16 on a combat air patrol over the burning Pentagon on September 11, 2001, after the hijacked Flight 77 crashed into it. 

(Gil Cohen, 9/11, National Guard Heritage Painting.)

“Ready to go. We can adapt 

to any situation that comes up 

and can respond to protect

this nation.”
38

controllers at the Northeast Air Defense 

Sector. They were warned that a fourth 

airliner, United Airlines Flight 93, was 

off course in the Cleveland, Ohio, area 

and not responding to FAA controllers.

During those first tension-filled 

minutes and hours after the terror 

attacks in 2001, two pilots in the Ohio 

Air National Guard’s 180th Fighter 

Wing based at Toledo Express Airport 

received the order to fly and make sure 

every unauthorized aircraft complied 

with the order to land. “Generally, 

our mission is dropping bombs, laserguided bombs, precision guided,” said 

one of the pilots, Lieutenant Colonel 

Scott Reed. He had flown military jets 

for more than 20 years. Both he and 

Lieutenant Colonel Keith Newell, who 

also received the order, had their F-16s 

loaded with 500 rounds of 20-caliber 

ammunition for the M-61 cannon called 

The Vulcan, which fires about 100 

rounds per second. If they encountered 

a plane that remained aloft, according 

to Reed, “We detach ourselves as much 

as we can and look at it as a technical 

problem to be solved.” Fortunately, 

they did not have to shoot anything that 

day. During the mission, “I felt pretty 

good about what we were doing simply 

because it was the first time in my whole 

life that I was going to get to do what I 

thought was protect the homeland,” said 

Newell. “Ready to go. We can adapt to any 

situation that comes up and can respond 

to protect this nation.” New York Air 

Guard’s 174th Fighter Wing at Syracuse 

also received an order to arm F-16s and 

get them airborne as soon as possible.

Neither unit was part of NORAD. 

However, Colonel Marr from the 

Northeast Air Defense Sector and Major 

General Larry Arnold, who commanded 

First Air Force and Continental NORAD 

Region, realized that they needed as 

many armed fighter aircraft airborne as 

soon as possible to deal with the rapidly 

escalating crisis whose real extent was 

unknown at the time. Later, Colonel 

Marr emphasized that Flight 93 would 

have been shot down if it had tried to 

penetrate the Washington, DC, area. 

With the exception of the 102nd 

Fighter Wing on Cape Cod and the 

119th Fighter Wing’s alert detachment 

at Langley Air Force Base, none of the 

ANG units had been tasked to conduct 

air defense operations on the morning 

of September 11th.

That morning, Major Dan Caine was 

serving as the supervisor of flying operations 

for the 121st Fighter Squadron of the 

District of Columbia‘s Air Guard located 

at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, 

just east of the beltway that encircles 

Washington, DC. Although a general 

purpose fighter unit whose pilots were 

trained in defensive counter air tactics 

as part of their mission responsibilities, 

the 121st was not part of the nation’s air 

defense alert force. Caine knew of the 

situation from watching live television 

coverage of the burning World Trade 

Center towers. Among his concerns, Air 

Force One was based at Andrews. Major 

Caine then called a Secret Service agent 

he knew who could not give him useful 

information. Shortly after, someone from 

the Secret Service telephoned Major 

Caine and asked if the DC Air Guard 

could launch armed fighter aircraft. He 

checked with his boss, Brigadier General 

David Wherle, commander of the 113th 

Wing. Next he directed personnel at the 

unit’s munitions dump on the other side 

of the base to begin uncrating bullets 

and missiles so they could be moved 

to the flight line. Caine then received 

a call from an unidentified individual 

at the White House requesting that his 

unit place armed fighter aircraft over 

Washington, DC. That order, confirmed 

by the Secret Service, represented the 

unit’s first official tasking to defend 

the nation’s capital. During the call, he 

Members of the 121st Fighter Squadron, 113th Wing, District of Columbia Air National Guard, 

September 11, 2001, prepare to load a missile on an F-16 at Andrews AFB, Maryland, in response to the 

terrorist attacks on the United States that took place earlier that day. (Courtesy of the 113th Wing.)
heard Vice President Dick Cheney talking 

in the background. 

President Bush was in Florida, and 

Vice President Cheney gave the military 

authority to shoot down any other hijacked 

civilian aircraft that terrorists attempted 

to use as manned guided missiles. The 

121st sent up a series of F-16s. Two, flown 

by Lieutenant Colonel Marc Sasseville 

and Captain Heather Penney, had no 

time to arm before launching, and only 

carried training bullets. Later the DC 

Air Guard pilots reluctantly admitted 

that if their training ammunition had 

been unable to bring down a hijacked 

aircraft, they were ready to ram it. 

They established a low level combat air 

patrol over Washington unaware of the 

presence in the area of the North Dakota 

Air Guardsmen. The DC Guardsmen 

communicated with FAA controllers, 

using different radio frequencies than 

the North Dakota Guardsmen, who 

received direction from the Northeast 

Air Defense Sector. Fortunately, the 

North Dakotans patrolled at a higher 

altitude than the 121st fighters, and over 

a different part of the Washington area.

Several minutes after Sasseville and 

Penney took off, Caine and Captain 

Brandon Rasmussen launched their 

fighters from Andrews Air Force Base 

with hot guns and AIM-9 Sidewinder 

missiles. They established radio contact 

with both the FAA controllers and the 

North Dakota Air Guardsmen. Later 

that day ANG F-16s from the 192nd 

Fighter Wing at Richmond, Virginia, 

and the 177th Fighter Wing at Atlantic 

City, New Jersey, joined them. The 

ANG KC-135s from the 108th Air 

Refueling Wing, New Jersey ANG; and 

the 121st Air Refueling Wing, Ohio 

ANG, serviced them as well as Air 

Force, Marine Corps, and Navy fighters, 

KC-10s, and Airborne Warning and 

Control System (AWACS) aircraft. 

At one point that day, there were as 

many as 12 fighter aircraft airborne 

over the nation’s capital. Working with 

AWACS, the Northeast Air Defense 

Sector, and FAA air traffic controllers, 

the pilots maintained a coordinated 

system of defensive patrols over the 

nation’s capital on that terrible day.

 The air crew of a Minnesota ANG 

C-130 from the 133rd Airlift Wing 

had been diverted from Andrews Air 

Force Base to check out reports of an 

unidentified aircraft heading south toward 

Washington, DC, above the Potomac 

River. To the crew’s horror, they saw 

American Airlines Flight 77 crash into the 

Pentagon. They then turned back toward 

the west. As they flew over southwestern 

Pennsylvania, the pilots witnessed the 

fourth hijacked airliner, United Flight 93, 

crashing after its passengers apparently 

overwhelmed the terrorists controlling 

the aircraft. General Arnold was not 

informed of the presidential authority 

to shoot Flight 93 down until about five 

minutes after it crashed.

While communications failures, 

among other problems, prevented the 

military from deflecting the actual 

hijackings, the armed forces reacted 

quickly once they realized that the 

United States was under attack. First 

Air Force and the Air Guard adapted 

rapidly on September 11, 2001. The 

ANG Director, Major General Paul A. 

Weaver Jr. activated the Air Guard’s 

Crisis Action Team at Andrews Air 

Force Base that morning. Along with 

the Continental NORAD Region and 

its three sector operations centers, 

the Crisis Action Team contacted 

ANG fighter, tanker, and airlift units 

across the country to prepare as many 

aircraft as they could as quickly as 

possible to defend the nation. The Air 

National Guard’s Crisis Action Team 

formed the central point of contact 

assisting the mobilization, coordination, 

and monitoring of ANG resources 

39 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Staff Sergeant John K. Miller, (left), Technical Sergeant Yusuf S. Abullah, and Staff Sergeant Lorenzo 

Parnell, (right), 113th Security Forces Squadron, District of Columbia Air National Guard, double 

check the weapons inventory as they prepare for deployment to Bolling AFB, Washington DC. The 113th 

will augment the active duty security forces. The activation of the 113th was part of the heightened security after September 11, 2001. (Photographer: MSgt Sean M. Brennan. Air Force Photo.)
40

worldwide for emergency missions 

concerning natural and manmade disasters 

including terrorism.

Across the United States scores of 

traditional Air Guard members either 

contacted their units to see if they 

could help or just showed up. Within 

an hour after the World Trade Center 

attacks, for example, Scotia, New York’s 

2nd Weapons of Mass DestructionCivil Support Team (WMD-CST or 

CST) assembled with its equipment 

at Stratton ANG Base. By 8:30 p.m. 

that same day, this team of specially 

trained Air and Army Guardsmen had 

flown to Manhattan, approximately 

170 miles away, and set up operations 

near what became known as Ground 

Zero. The CSTs began in the 1990s to 

assist localities during natural disasters 

and terrorist attacks. The 2nd Civil 

Support Team became the first of 

those teams to deploy in a real crisis. 

The unit, augmented by two members 

of a Minnesota National Guard CST, 

continued operations in Manhattan 

through mid-September, 2001.

Because no preexisting priority list 

existed of cities, military installations, 

nuclear power plants, and other key 

places to defend, initially General Arnold 

and his staff at First Air Force nominated 

the areas. They gave priority to protecting 

major U.S. population centers, and 

General Ralph E. Eberhart, NORAD’s 

commander in chief, quickly approved 

those suggestions. While improvising 

a defense of the airspace within the 

continental U.S. on September 11th, 

First Air Force also had to field irate 

phone calls from installation commanders 

demanding protection, as well as contend 

with confusing information regarding 

21 commercial aircraft that acted 

suspiciously.

Protection for President Bush was 

an unquestioned priority. When the 

terrorists struck New York City and 

Washington, DC, he was in Sarasota, 

Florida, reading a story to elementary 

school children. First Air Force 

repositioned an Air Force E-3 AWACS 

aircraft on a training mission off the 

Florida coast so that it could cover Air 

Force One and then the Secret Service 

put General Arnold’s command in charge 

of protecting the president. With the 

decision to send the president aloft, the 

Southeast Air Defense Sector scrambled 

four armed F-16s from the Texas Air 

National Guard’s 147th Fighter Wing 

to escort Air Force One as it flew to 

Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, 

its first stop. Next the president flew to 

Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. Once 

General Arnold confirmed that the last 

of the 21 suspicious airline flights was 

safely on the ground, President Bush 

returned to Washington. Air National 

Guard aircraft from Louisiana’s 122nd 

Fighter Squadron, Iowa’s 174th 

Fighter Squadron, and the District 

of Columbia’s 121st Fighter Squadron 

joined the Texans at various times 

protecting Air Force One until its return 

to Andrews Air Force Base.

Meanwhile, acting under General 

Eberhart’s authority, First Air Force 

built and published air tasking orders 

and established communications with 

other responsible military organizations 

and civilian governmental agencies. In 

addition, it maintained positive command 

and control of an expanded air defense 

system that now included the interior 

of the continental United States. The 

First Air Force air operations center 

also grew from 38 to 160 people, and 

its personnel, primarily Air Guardsmen, 

worked long days, seven days a week, 

until help arrived from active duty 

Air Force organizations. By December 

2001 more than 350 military personnel 

staffed the center.

To further expand the reach of First 

Air Force throughout the continental 

United States, it established data 

links with FAA radars and sent air 

controllers from the Air Force, ANG, 

and other branches of the armed forces 

to 21 civilian air traffic control centers. 

In addition, mobile radar units were 

dispatched to fill critical coverage gaps in 

the nation’s heartland. Federal Aviation 

Administration centers installed voice 

communications links that could alert 

First Air Force quickly to new emerging 

threats over the United States. This also 

enabled the FAA to talk to almost any 

plane flying in the nation’s airspace.

Air National Guard and Air Force 

aircraft were joined by Navy fighter and 

E-2 surveillance aircraft to help protect 

New York City and Washington, DC. 

U.S. Customs Service P-3s as well as five 

Navy Aegis cruisers and two destroyers 

augmented the air surveillance network. 

Their task had been greatly eased because 

the government officially prohibited all 

civilian air traffic within the U.S. borders. 

All military flying, except air defense 

missions, was likewise terminated.

During the first 24 hours of the 

crisis, 34 Air Guard fighter units flew 

179 missions. Eighteen tanker units 

generated 78 aircraft in the same time 

period. Through September 28, for 

example, Alabama’s 117th Air Refueling 

During the first 24 hours of 

the crisis, 34 Air Guard fighter 

units flew 179 missions.
Wing kept aircraft aloft on a continuous 

basis. Air National Guard units also 

contributed 111 C-130 aircraft, and 

more than 3,000 ANG security forces 

personnel supported the mission. 

At General Weaver’s direction, 88 

ANG flying units established 24-hour 

command posts during that period. 

Physical security was increased at all 

Air Guard units to protect them against 

potential terrorist attacks. All of that was 

accomplished initially not only by fulltime ANG support personnel, but by 

traditional Air Guardsmen on a volunteer 

basis without their units being mobilized 

for federal service by the president or 

Congress. Senior Guard leaders assumed 

that the necessary paperwork and funding 

for such emergency actions would catch 

up with their organizations later. Overall, 

the U.S. air defense network expanded 

to nearly 300 aircraft on alert at 26 

locations within 18 hours of the terrorist 

attacks and First Air Force maintained 

16 separate continuous fighter orbits for 

three days. 

In addition to fighters and tankers the 

Air Guard’s airlift, security forces, civil 

engineering, combat communications, 

aeromedical, and rescue units were also 

heavily involved in America’s initial 

military responses to the terrorist 

attacks. Within hours of the hijack 

notifications, Air Guard airlift C-5s, 

C-130s, and C-141s were transporting 

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

(FEMA) personnel, Federal Bureau 

of Investigation (FBI) agents, human 

organ and blood supplies, and National 

Guard Civil Support Teams to various 

communities across the country. Some 

70 ANG security forces units were 

activated and hundreds of civil engineers 

were called up. ANG rescue personnel 

also became involved. Moreover, at 

least six combat communications units 

prepared to operate three sites and 70 

aeromedical crews were placed on alert. 

According to Colonel William Scott 

U.S. Air Force (Ret) and special assistant 

to General Arnold:

 “For about nine days we held on 

by our fingernails, never missed an 

air tasking push order, never missed 

an air space control order push. The 

issue was not our capability, it was 

our sustainability.... Our kids had 

been literally getting no sleep. They 

were working 18 hours per day or 

more because of the level of effort 

that we were putting into defending 

the air spaces, and many of them 

were at the limit of exhaustion.”

On September 20, 2001, President 

Bush told a televised joint session of 

Congress and the American people that 

Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda 

network were responsible for the 

recent terrorist attacks on the United 

States. Accusing Afghanistan’s Taliban 

regime of sheltering bin Laden and his 

organization, the president demanded 

that they immediately turn him over 

to American authorities and dismantle 

every terrorist camp in their country or 

face a military onslaught by the United 

States. The president summoned the 

nation to launch a protracted “global war 

against terrorism.” Using broad rhetorical 

strokes, President Bush described a 

titanic struggle between civilization 

and radical Islam. He went beyond that 

theme emphasizing that, “Our war on 

terror will not end until every terrorist 

group of global reach has been found, 

stopped, and defeated.”

Operation Noble Eagle

As a result of the September 11, 2001 

(9/11), attacks, homeland defense became 

the top national defense priority. The 

41 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Senior Airmen Emery Blanchard, 151st Security Forces Squadron, Utah Air National Guard, guards the 

Salt Lake City International Airport. The unit was called up and stationed at the airport as part of the 

increased vigilance and readiness encompassed in Operation Noble Eagle, September 30, 2001. (Photographer: MSgt Mark Savage, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
42

enhanced defense of North America and 

military support to civilian government 

agencies, known as Operation Noble 

Eagle, began early the next day when 

General Eberhart, NORAD commander 

in chief, issued the execution order. On 

September 14, President Bush declared a 

national emergency and made members 

of the nation’s Ready Reserve subject to 

federal service for as long as two years. 

Although part of a total force effort 

that included elements of other services 

and even NATO AWACS aircraft, 

the Air National Guard provided the 

largest portion of the vastly strengthened 

continental air defense system under 

Operation Noble Eagle.

A week after the attacks, Secretary of 

Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced the 

call up of over more than 5,000 members 

of the Air National Guard and Air Force 

Reserve to support the nation’s increased 

security requirements. On September 

22, the president mobilized about 

5,100 more members of the air reserve 

components, including approximately 

3,000 air refueling and about 130 

security specialists. Guardsmen gained 

national visibility starting September 

27, when President Bush asked the 

governors for their temporary help at 

commercial airports, which had reopened 

a few days after 9/11 with new security 

restrictions. In the airports they would 

“Temporarily augment the civilian 

airport security function of the nation’s 

commercial airports with a trained, 

armed, and highly visible military 

presence.” For more than seven months, 

several thousand Guardsmen performed 

those security duties, with additional 

Guardsmen called into service during 

the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New 

Year holiday period. Although the Army 

Guard provided the vast majority of the 

enhanced airport security force, several 

hundred Air National Guard personnel 

also participated. 

The Air Guard security forces also 

protected Air Force bases in the United 

States and overseas. However, the Air Force 

did not agree for several months that ANG 

installations contributed critical assets in 

the war against terrorism and required 

stronger protection. Air National Guard 

officials pointed out that the American 

people and their elected representatives 

would be appalled by televised images of 

burning aircraft destroyed by terrorists on 

poorly defended ANG bases. Eventually 

those bases received greater security and 

in December 2002, approximately 9,000 

Army Guardsmen were mobilized to 

strengthen security at 163 Air Force 

installations in the United States.

Operation Noble Eagle took a heavy 

toll on the Air Guard. In mid-October 

2001, General Arnold told a reporter 

the combination of combat air patrols 

and the 24/7 “alerts”* at 26 bases placed 

a great deal of stress on the fighter forces 

assigned to the operation. Fighter pilots, 

for example, could not maintain their 

required training. Some of the participating 

Air Guard fighter units burned up about 

1,000 flying hours during the first 30 

days of Noble Eagle, whereas, during 

ordinary peacetime training, those units 

typically would fly around 3,000 hours 

per year. Furthermore, the increased flight 

time created huge increases in aircraft 

maintenance requirements.

Anticipating that the constant alerts 

would continue into the winter, the ANG 

civil engineers in the National Guard 

Bureau used emergency procedures, to 

conduct environmental impact studies, 

obtain funding, and award contracts 

for $35 million to build 42 temporary 

and permanent aircraft shelters and 

support facilities on bases in Maryland, 

New Jersey, Colorado, Vermont, Texas, 

California, North Dakota, Louisiana, 

Massachusetts, Oregon, and Virginia. 

Among their challenges the civil engineers 

had to overcome bureaucratic hurdles 

like gaining waivers of certain fire 

protection standards for hangars. Such 

F-16s of the 119th Fighter Wing, North Dakota Air National Guard, fly a combat air patrol over 

Washington, DC, and the Pentagon in Operation Noble Eagle. November 2001. (Air National 

Guard Photo.)

* See Chapter 1
strict enforcement at that time suggested 

that not everyone in the Department of 

Defense and the Air Force had quickly 

adjusted their thinking to meet emergency 

wartime requirements. Nevertheless, alert 

shelters were completed in northern tier 

states by January 2002 while they finished 

those in milder climates by April.

The Air Guard’s civil engineers 

had been heavily involved in Operation 

Noble Eagle from the start. To assist 

in recovery operations at the World 

Trade Center, more than 150 of their 

number from New York were activated. 

They operated heavy equipment and 

supported the fire fighters. In addition, 

805 Air Guard civil engineer personnel 

maintained critical infrastructure and 

provided emergency services aroundthe-clock for the air sovereignty alert 

mission at 20 installations.

The enhanced continental air 

defense operation represented a major 

portion of the significant strengthening 

of the military defenses of the continental 

United States as a result of the terrorist 

attacks on September 11th. Shortly 

before that date the Air Force anticipated 

a significant cutback because of Secretary 

Rumsfeld’s transformation policy, and 

because he did not foresee any significant 

threat to the United States. However, the 

redrafted Quadrennial Defense Review 

released by the Pentagon on October 1, 

2001, designated homeland defense as 

the nation’s new top military mission. 

Consequently, in January 2002, NORAD 

increased the number of air defense alert 

sites. The Air Guard ran continuous 

round-the-clock combat air patrols over 

New York City and Washington, DC, 

until spring 2002. In addition, when 

key events occurred such as the Winter 

Olympics in Utah, space shuttle launches, 

baseball’s World Series and football’s 

Super Bowl, similar air patrols helped 

provide security. The Air Guard also flew 

random patrols over various urban areas, 

nuclear power plants, weapons storage 

facilities and laboratories.

By mid-April 2002, ANG and Air 

Force pilots had flown more than 20,000 

NORAD missions compared to only 150 

during 2000. As early as January 2002 

senior Air Force officials began searching 

for a politically acceptable way to end 

the constant airborne patrols over key 

American cities. That proved politically 

dicey given repeated Bush administration 

warnings about the continuing threats 

posed by terrorists. Nevertheless, General 

John Jumper, the Air Force Chief of 

Staff, warned about the heavy burdens 

those patrols were placing on the service’s 

personnel, their readiness for other missions, 

the availability of training funds, and the 

projected life spans of participating aircraft. 

In late February 2002 Secretary of the Air 

Force James Roche noted that the air patrols 

tied down approximately 265 aircraft and 

12,000 airmen. With some 14,000 airmen 

involved in the war in Afghanistan, the 

burden was especially heavy. Secretary 

Roche suggested eliminating continuous 

patrols over Washington, DC, and New 

York City plus the daily patrols over other 

cities to alleviate those stresses. Instead, 

he encouraged putting more fighters on 

“ground alert” for emergencies. 

Because estimates of the nation’s 

security situation became more optimistic 

that spring 2002, the Air Force eliminated 

the continuous patrols and substituted 

random ones. In addition, Secretary 

Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff 

decided to implement Secretary Roche’s 

suggestion with a flexible, tiered alert 

program. First Air Force also added the 

responsibility for policing and defending 

the airspace within the United States to its 

established role of protecting the nation 

from external aircraft threats. Although 

the active duty Air Force also played a 

significant role, the primary burden of 

increased domestic air defense fell on the 

Air National Guard. The ANG, concerned 

it might be reduced to a strictly homeland 

defense force, wanted to insure the Guard 

remained an integral component of a 

full spectrum expeditionary air force 

43 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Master Sergeant Franklin Buzby (left), Technical Sergeant Wendell Hunte (center) and Senior Airman 

Tina Ghaffins (right) from the Aircraft Generation Squadron, 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard, use a Universal Ammunition Loader to load 20mm rounds used in the F-16C Block 25. 

The Wing was flying combat air patrol missions during Operation Noble Eagle. (Photographer: MSgt 

Tom Louis. Courtesy of 177th Fighter Wing.)
44

including having its fighter units become 

more heavily engaged in ongoing offensive 

operations overseas. 

By late 2003 America’s continental air 

defense posture had changed dramatically 

from September 11, 2001. Heavily armed 

fighters capable of launching within 

minutes sat alert around the United 

States. Prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 

the Air Force’s domestic emergency 

defense consisted of only 14 ANG fighter 

aircraft with no dedicated support from 

either tankers or AWACS planes. After 

September 11th, at least 35 fighters 

(mostly ANG), two E-3 AWACS aircraft, 

and eight tankers stood available to defend 

the nation at any moment. First Air Force 

expanded its surveillance system to include 

data from Federal Aviation Administration 

radar that covered some three million 

square miles of U.S. airspace including 

the nation’s interior. Augmenting that 

coverage were radar data from AWACS 

and tethered aerostat balloons along the 

nation’s southern border. Several times 

every week, NORAD conducted exercises 

on dealing with hijacked airliners that 

included simulated shoot downs. While 

no other hijackings occurred, between 

September 11, 2001, and June 26, 2004, 

jet fighters were scrambled or diverted 

over 1,500 times to intercept planes that 

raised security alarms in the United States. 

Many of those incidents involved small, 

private aircraft whose pilots inadvertently 

violated airspace restrictions.

In June 2004 an incident occurred 

prior to former President Ronald 

Reagan’s funeral in Washington, DC, that 

underscored lingering concerns about the 

adequacy of the nation’s air defense. That 

day an unidentified aircraft penetrated so 

deeply into Washington’s no-fly zone that 

the Capitol building, where a large crowd 

awaited the arrival of President Reagan’s 

coffin, was evacuated. According to news 

accounts, General Eberhart came close to 

ordering it shot down. The aircraft landed 

at Reagan National Airport before it could 

be identified by intercepting Air Guard F16s from Andrews Air Force Base. The 

aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air turboprop, 

turned out to be carrying Governor Ernie 

Fletcher of Kentucky to the funeral. 

Although the aircraft’s transponder had 

only been working intermittently, the pilot 

convinced FAA to let it fly from Kentucky 

and land at National Airport, which 

had been closed to private aircraft since 

September 11, 2001. Air traffic controllers 

responsible for the National Airport area, 

not knowing the situation, reported the 

unknown aircraft in restricted space. 

Although tragedy was narrowly averted, 

the episode highlighted continuing flaws 

in the enhanced air defense system.

Pentagon officials acknowledged that 

the Air Guard had carried the major share 

of the increased air defense responsibilities 

under Noble Eagle. They considered the 

ANG the right organization to carry those 

burdens because of the wide geographic 

dispersal of its units and its long-standing 

participation in the homeland defense 

mission. But they emphasized that 

homeland defense would not become an 

exclusive ANG mission; active force flying 

units would also participate in surge air 

patrols and alert requirements. However 

in March 2003, the United States, 

which had been engaged in Afghanistan 

(Operation Enduring Freedom) since 

October 2001, went to war in a second 

theater, Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom). 

Those conflicts and ANG’s continued 

presence supporting expeditionary 

forces around the globe, plus continued 

homeland defense, would challenge the 

Air National Guard as it rounded out its 

first sixty years. f

A Florida Air National Guard F-15A Eagle aircraft assigned to the 125th Fighter Wing flies a Combat 

Air Patrol mission over Cape Kennedy, Florida, for Operation Noble Eagle. The Space Shuttle Endeavor 

is positioned on the launch pad, November 29, 2001. (Photographer: TSgt Shaun Withers, USAF. Air 

Force Photo.)
WARS

45 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

WITHOUT END 

On June 8, 2004, the Air National Guard (ANG) Senior Scout crew 

of Combined Joint Task Force—76 Operations set out from KarshiKhanaba Air Base, Uzbekistan. The Senior Scout surveillance system 

monitored radio signals and was carried by a C-130. The crew headed for Zabul 

and Oruzgun provinces in south-central Afghanistan. That nation’s elections were 

scheduled to take place in September and Afghanistan’s former leaders, the Taliban, 

were instigating violence in order to undermine that nation’s fledgling democracy.
To threaten the stability and security of 

the provinces, Taliban leader Mullah 

Dadullah called upon 500 to 800 fighters 

to demoralize the United States Marines, 

other coalition members, and United 

Nations election workers, and counter 

any efforts to disarm and contain the 

antigovernment forces.

The task force consisted of members 

of the 169th Intelligence Squadron (Utah), 

the 197th Intelligence Squadron (Nevada), 

both ANG, and the 97th Intelligence 

Squadron, U.S. Air Force. Previously, a 

Senior Scout mission helped thwart a plan 

to poison the water supply at Kandahar 

Air Base, Afghanistan. On that day, as on 

most of its missions, the crew supported 

the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. The 

Senior Scout established contact with the 

Marines only to find them surrounded by 

more than 120 anticoalition militia. From 

the time reinforcements were on their way 

and for several hours thereafter, the crew 

pinpointed the enemies’ locations for the 

Marines and their rescuers. At the end of the 

mission, more than 80 enemy combatants 

lay dead and an additional number had been 

captured. Three Afghan coalition fighters 

died and five Marines received non-lifethreatening injuries. According to Brigadier 

General Norman Sipe, Deputy Combined 

Forces Air Component Commander, “Your 

support directly contributed to our ability 

to identify, close with, and destroy our 

enemies.” The 22nd Marines were more 

emphatic. When asked if the Senior Scout 

crew provided essential support, the Marines 

responded, “Hell, yes!”

The June 8, 2004, rescue illustrated 

the kind of support the Air National 

Guard provided for wars in Afghanistan 

(Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq 

(Operation Iraqi Freedom). In addition 

to the heavy demands placed on the ANG 

by those conflicts and Operation Noble 

Eagle protecting the United States, Air 

Guardsmen continued supporting other 

Air and Space Expeditionary Force (AEF)* 

commitments around the globe. The 

Senior Scout mission also illustrated the 

cooperation between different components 

of the Air Force indicative of the 21st 

century total force. 

Operation Enduring 

Freedom

On March 4, 2003, pararescueman Tech 

Sergeant Keary Miller of the 123rd Special 

Tactics Squadron, Kentucky ANG, 

participated in one of the bloodiest smallunit battles in the “global war on terrorism.” 

It was part of Operation Anaconda, the 

largest offensive since the beginning of 

Operation Enduring Freedom. Congress 

authorized sending U.S. military forces to 

the Afghan region September 14, 2001, 

because reconnaissance missions over 

Afghanistan had found al Qaeda training 

camps within that country. 

Historically, Afghanistan was regarded 

by many as the worst place on Earth to 

fight a war. The country, roughly the size 

of Texas, had an inhospitable climate and 

At the end of the mission, more 

than 80 enemy combatants lay 

dead and an additional number 

had been captured.

Personnel assigned to the 321st Air Expeditionary Squadron offload supplies from a C-130H Hercules 

aircraft assigned to the 187th Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air National Guard, at Kandahar, Afghanistan, 

during Operation Enduring Freedom. (Photographer: TSgt Marvin Preston, USAF.) LEFT: A-10 fighter pilot Major Jim Ewald, 172nd Fighter Squadron, 110th Fighter Wing, Michigan Air National Guard, 

was shot down and recovered during Operation Iraqi Freedom, April 8, 2003. (Air Force Photo.)

46

* See Chapter II regarding the AEF concept.
a rugged topography. The tribes that lived 

there were known not to run from a good 

fight. In the southern third of the country, 

the landscape contained a desert-like plateau 

where nomads and others scampered 

freely across the Afghan-Pakistan border 

in both directions. The central two-thirds 

of the country contained the Hindu Kush 

Mountains, a chain almost 1,000 miles 

long and 200 miles wide. The mountains 

ran from the northeast out of northern 

Pakistan to the southwest into Iran. The 

ranges contained more than 20 peaks 

higher than 23,000 feet above sea level with 

deep valleys in between. Afghanistan had 

only 16 miles of railroad and its roads were 

in less-than-desirable condition. The land 

was hard, and so were the lessons learned 

from previous invaders of that land such as 

Genghis Khan, Great Britain under Queen 

Victoria, and the Russians under Leonid 

Brezhnev. Taking place on Takur Ghar, a 

snowcapped, 10,200-foot mountain where 

temperatures at the top reached 40 degrees 

Fahrenheit during the day and dropped to 

a negative five at night, the harsh combat 

conditions of that battle reminded men like 

Sergeant Miller of the value of his realistic 

training over the years. Miller’s lifesaving 

skills were put to the ultimate test during 

that fierce battle.

For Operation Anaconda, its commander, Army Major General Franklin L. 

Hagenbeck, directed coalition forces, U.S. 

soldiers and Afghan forces, to destroy 

remaining al Qaeda and Taliban forces in 

an area located roughly 65 nautical miles 

south of the Afghan capital, Kabul. One 

reconnaissance team in two helicopters 

landed on Takur Ghar. One helicopter 

carried a Navy SEAL team and an Air 

Force combat controller, Tech Sergeant 

John Chapman. As the SEAL team disembarked, automatic weapons fire laced the 

helicopter’s side while a rocket propelled 

grenade ripped into it. The crew chief 

yelled, “We’re taking fire! Go! Go! Go!” 

and the SEAL team rushed back inside. As 

the pilots added power to evade the heavy 

ground fire, the damaged helicopter bucked 

violently, causing Navy SEAL Petty Officer 

Neil Roberts, who was standing on the 

ramp, to fall about 12 feet to the ground 

below. The helicopter escaped the ambush 

and crash-landed about seven kilometers 

north of where Petty Officer Roberts fell.

The second helicopter rescued the 

other SEALs and Sergeant Chapman but 

after returning to their base, they decided 

to try and rescue Petty Officer Roberts. 

Regardless of the danger they knew the al 

Qaeda would treat Roberts badly and time 

was running out for him. Despite intense 

ground fire, the six men successfully 

returned to Takur Ghar. Nevertheless, the 

battle continued and Sergeant Chapman 

was killed along with several enemy fighters. 

Surrounded by gunfire, the men on the 

ground called upon a Quick Reaction Force 

(QRF), designed for such emergencies. 

Those forces consisted of 23 men and two 

helicopters. The team included Sergeant 

Miller. “We were notified that we would 

be launching in 45 minutes,” he recalled, 

“and were going into [an al Qaeda and 

Taliban] infested area.” Also on the team 

were Army Rangers. During Operation 

Enduring Freedom, Rangers and special 

operations formed the focal point of the 

U.S. ground campaign. Sourced from 

special operations forces throughout the 

U.S. military and from the Special Air 

Services of Great Britain and Australia, 

those forces organized the Afghan resistance 

Map of Afghanistan (Central Intelligence Agency).

47 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
48

and directed punishing air strikes against 

the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Because of communications failures, 

the Quick Reaction Force landed in the 

same spot as the previous helicopters and, 

like them, was greeted with gunfire. Miller’s 

helicopter managed to land, and the QRF 

called in close air support. For the next 

five and a half hours, they battled with 

the enemy. Three Rangers died and others 

were wounded.

According to Sergeant Miller, “We 

continued to treat the patients, continued 

moving ammunition and grenades to 

where they were needed. I grabbed a radio 

... and set up satellite communication 

and then returned to the rear.” Sergeant 

Miller and Airman Jason Cunningham, 

like Miller, a pararescueman, worked hard 

to keep the patients from succumbing 

to hypothermia. They put them in the 

helicopter and removed its insulation and 

wrapped it around the wounded Rangers. 

In addition, they used the majority of 

the fluids available in the medical kits 

and anything else, including the heaters 

packed in their food rations. With the 

help of the additional Rangers and more 

air strikes, they took the hill, killing many 

al Qaeda combatants. They also recovered 

the bodies of Petty Officer Roberts and 

Sergeant Chapman. 

Approximately 10 minutes after the 

Rangers took control of the hill, they began 

to receive more frequent enemy mortar and 

automatic weapons fire. Although combat 

air support prevailed, the enemy wounded 

an Army medic and fatally wounded 

Airman Cunningham. At that point the 

Quick Reaction Force had 11 wounded 

and seven dead. After 17 hours on the 

mountaintop, a nighttime rescue took 

place and the ordeal was over. Operation 

Anaconda continued for another 19 days.

Although the exploits of one Air 

Guardsman in Takur Ghar may hold 

limited significance in the overall history 

of Operation Enduring Freedom, that 

battle illustrated the ability of Air 

Guardsmen to actively contribute to a 

vital U.S. military operation. Moreover, 

the battle on Takur Ghar demonstrated 

that members of the Air National Guard 

could perform tasks equally as well as 

active duty airmen. On November 1, 

2003, Secretary of the Air Force James 

G. Roche awarded Sergeant Miller the 

Paktia Province, Afghanistan, March 4, 2002, Technical Sergeant Keary Miller of the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, Kentucky National Guard, not only 

managed to drag a wounded helicopter pilot to safety at Taka Ghur, but also orchestrated the establishment of multiple casualty collection points. In between 

treating the wounded, Miller set up the distribution of ammunition for the Army Rangers who were taking the fight to the enemy. For his extraordinary 

life-saving efforts while putting himself in extreme danger under enemy fire, Sergeant Miller was awarded the Silver Star. (Keith Rocco, The Battle of Takur 

Ghar, National Guard Heritage Painting.)
Silver Star for his bravery under fire.

The battle of Takur Ghar exemplified 

only one small instance of Air National 

Guard participation in the war in 

Afghanistan. However, the Guard’s role in 

Operation Enduring Freedom expanded 

continuously from 2001 to 2004 in terms of 

the number of personnel and the capabilities 

deployed. The ANG was involved even 

before the fighting in Afghanistan began. 

With the war imminent, the Air Force 

quickly established an airlift operations 

plan that included active duty, Guard, 

and Reserve components. It became one 

of the most extensive operations in Air 

Force history. Furthermore, the Air Force 

met the logistical needs of that operation 

despite the severe shortage of strategic 

airlift and troublesome maintenance needs 

of the older planes.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks on 

September 11, 2001 (9/11) and weeks 

before the first U.S. bomb was dropped 

over Afghanistan, the Air Force established 

air bridges to help funnel material and 

personnel overseas to support multiple 

operations in conjunction with Enduring 

Freedom. Air National Guard tanker units 

received orders by September 20, 2001, to 

be in their deployed locations before the 

start of their air bridge operations. Some 

ANG tanker units also flew humanitarian 

support missions. By using European bases, 

the Air Force could transfer cargo from 

the larger aircraft to smaller planes, refuel 

aircraft on the ground, exchange flight 

crews, give crews rest opportunities, and 

repair broken aircraft. 

Strategic airlift planes such as 

the Lockheed C-141B Starlifter, the 

Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, the Boeing C-17 

Globemaster III, and civilian wide-body 

airliners were the workhorses for carrying 

America’s war machine overseas. The 

Air Guard contributed two Starlifter 

units, the 155th Airlift Squadron, 164th 

Airlift Wing, Tennessee ANG, and the 

183rd Airlift Squadron, 172nd Airlift 

Wing, Mississippi ANG, to the strategic 

airlift mission. The Air Guard’s sole C-5 

unit, the 137th Airlift Squadron, 105th 

Airlift Wing, Newburgh, New York, also 

contributed to the operation. Through 

49 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

A US Air Force F-16C Fighting Falcon, 174th Fighter Wing, New York Air National Guard, Syracuse, New York, in flight over Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. The aircraft is armed with AIM-120A Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles on each wing tip, a pair of GBU-12 500-pound 

bombs (left), a 370-gallon tank. It also has an AN/AAQ-28(V) Litening II targeting pod under the intake, November 29, 2003. (Photographer

Suzanne M. Jenkins, USAF. Air Force Photo.)

Air National Guard cargo planes also 

worked close to combat operations. 

By March 2002 ANG C-130 units had 

flown 55 percent of the missions for 

the Afghanistan war.
50

the ANG’s airlift participation in Europe, 

the Air Force’s C-17s could support 

Enduring Freedom directly. 

When the war began, only Air 

Guard units assigned to Air Force 

Special Operations Command deployed 

directly to Afghanistan to support combat 

operations. Typically, ANG Special Forces 

units in 13-man teams first went to active 

duty bases in the United States, and later 

to overseas locations. 

The 169th Fighter Wing, South 

Carolina ANG, was the first ANG fighter 

unit to deploy to Southwest Asia in direct 

support of the air war over Afghanistan. It 

sent over 200 personnel and six F-16CJs in 

January 2002 to Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, 

Qatar, to assist air combat operations over 

Afghanistan. In particular, they provided 

Joint Direct Attack Munitions against 

Taliban and al Qaeda positions, the only 

Air Force fighter unit in the theater to do 

so. F-16s sometimes were also configured 

for Cluster Bomb Units. In addition, F16 pilots sometimes fired their 20mm gun 

against ground targets. Missions could last 

up to 10 hours with 10 to 15 air refuelings. 

After so many hours strapped in their seats, 

pilots generally received one to three days 

of crew rest. The unit returned to South 

Carolina April 3, 2002. 

Pennsylvania ANG’s 103rd Fighter 

Squadron, 111th Fighter Wing, became 

the first A-10 ANG unit to deploy directly 

to Afghanistan. From December 2002 to 

January 2003, the 111th Fighter Wing 

deployed personnel and sent its aircraft to 

Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. 

In March 2003 the Air National Guard 

deployed all six of its A-10 units overseas for 

combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Five units went to Iraq; only the 104th 

Fighter Squadron in Maryland’s 175th 

Wing deployed to Afghanistan. While 

there, it flew all the A-10 combat missions 

for Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Without the support of air refueling 

tankers, fighter planes could not have 

carried out their lengthy missions. 

According to one historian of air warfare, 

aerial refueling formed the core of any 

modern air combat operation. The Air 

Force had two weapons systems dedicated 

to aerial refueling: the McDonnell Douglas 

KC-10 Extender and the venerable Boeing 

KC-135 Stratotanker, the primary enabler 

for Air Force air combat operations. 

Usually, the KC-135 performed air bridge 

operations supporting strategic airlift, 

bombers, and fighter aircraft deploying into 

a theater of operations. They also provided 

air refueling support for attack aircraft 

like the 169th’s F-16s, and other support 

aircraft flying missions in the combat zone. 

KC-10 or KC-135 air refueling tankers 

dragged the 169th F-16s throughout their 

flights over Afghanistan, except over actual 

combat areas. Without the fighters’ ability 

to stay aloft for hours, and without the air 

bridge support provided by those tankers, 

the war in Afghanistan would not have 

been possible to execute.

Air National Guard cargo planes 

also worked close to combat operations. 

By March 2002 ANG C-130 units had 

flown 55 percent of the missions for the 

Afghanistan war. Typically, ANG C-130 

crews flying into dangerous environments 

executed an “Engine Running Offload” or 

combat offload. That meant the pilots kept 

the engines on while the crews swiftly rolled 

supplies out the back of the airplanes. Using 

that method, the planes spent the least 

amount of time on the ground, thereby, 

reducing their vulnerability to ground fire 

and providing the highest chance to escape 

successfully if any trouble occurred. 

The 193rd Special Operations 

Wing, Pennsylvania, using the EC-130E 

aircraft, performed an unusual mission 

in Afghanistan: psychological operations. 

Since 1968, the 193rd had been handling 

airborne psychological missions. The 

EC-130E acquired the mission name 

Commando Solo during the 1990s, when 

the aircraft was modified to handle color 

television operations. One of the first 

ANG flying units deployed to the area, 

the 193rd began transmitting by the end 

of October 2001. For almost six months 

the unit relayed broadcasts of Voice of 

America in the Dari and Pashtu languages 

A KC-135R assigned to the 195th Air Refueling Squadron, 163rd Air Refueling Wing, California Air 

National Guard, is refueling a US Navy F-14A Tomcat over northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, April 11, 2003. (Photographer: Paul Farley, Civilian, U.S. Navy. U.S. Navy Photo.)
and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 

Uzbek, Tajik, and Persian. According to a 

White House spokesman, the Commando 

Solo missions gave the Afghan people 

“full knowledge about what is happening 

in Afghanistan from a source other than 

a repressive Taliban regime.” The 193rd 

remained in the region until ground 

psychological warfare operations stations 

were safely established. 

Pilots are the Air Force and Air Guard’s 

elite, but personnel on the ground also 

performed functions essential to combat. 

Among the most significant on the ground 

were the civil engineers assigned to the 

Rapid Engineer Deployable—Heavy 

Operational Repair Squadron Engineer 

(RED HORSE) teams. Originating in the 

Vietnam conflict, their arsenal consisted 

of weapons, vehicles, equipment, vehicle 

maintenance, food service, supplies, and 

medical equipment. As their primary 

mission, RED HORSE teams assessed, 

planned, and established facilities 

and infrastructures to support both 

domestic and overseas operations. They 

deployed quickly into remote, high threat 

environments to provide rapid damage and 

requirements assessments, heavy damage 

repair, build base camps, and conduct other 

engineering and construction projects such 

as aircraft parking ramps and munitions 

pads. Those units provided the Air Force 

with a highly mobile civil engineer response 

force to support operations worldwide.

The ANG had six RED HORSE 

units assigned while the active duty had 

four, and the Air Force Reserve had two. 

Air Force RED HORSE support for 

Operation Enduring Freedom consisted 

of constructing new airfields for future 

air operations and repairing facilities that 

had deteriorated. Beginning in mid-April 

2002 ANG RED HORSE units deployed 

to various overseas bases to support the 

Afghanistan War. The Air Force tasked an 

estimated $100 million worth of projects 

to RED HORSE units that year. Those 

projects included an aircraft hangar, fire 

station, taxiway repairs, site work, support 

facilities, and a vehicle search area at three 

Southwest Asia air bases. Notwithstanding 

the large influx of civilian construction 

contractors working in Southwest Asia, 

RED HORSE remained the primary 

enabler in the largest military construction 

effort since the Vietnam War. In one 

instance the security situation at an Afghan 

base was so precarious, that runway repairs 

had to take place at night. Air National 

Guard RED HORSE personnel wearing 

night vision goggles successfully poured 

concrete in complete darkness. The 

experience in Operation Enduring Freedom 

reminded senior Air Force planners that 

the Air Guard’s RED HORSE units were 

equally as capable as their active duty 

equivalents. Because many ANG and Air 

Reserve personnel performed the same jobs 

in their civilian careers, perhaps, they were 

even more skilled and more experienced 

than their active duty counterparts. Air 

National Guard civil engineers provided 

40 percent of the total Air Force Civil 

Engineer forces in Afghanistan by 2004.

Members of another ground-based 

ANG unit proved essential in Afghanistan: 

tactical air controllers embedded with 

the Army ground forces. The application 

of air power to support the ground war 

could not have been accomplished without 

their skills. All but one of the Air Support 

Operations Squadrons assigned to the 

Air National Guard were deployed for 

Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. 

According to their After Action Report 

they supported 100 percent of the 

Combined Joint Special Operations Task 

Force—Afghanistan requests for forces 

and supported Special Forces units with 

conventional tactical air controllers.

Operation Iraqi Freedom benefited 

51 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Iraq map. (Central Intelligence Agency.)
52

from Enduring Freedom’s experience. 

However, once the Iraq conflict began, in 

March 2003, the military began to reduce 

its resources in Afghanistan. Yet the heavy 

reliance on using the Guard and Reserve 

there continued.

Operation Iraqi Freedom

On March 19, 2003, the United States 

and coalition forces launched the invasion 

of Iraq in order to remove Saddam 

Hussein’s regime from power. Coalition 

air forces battered Baghdad from the air 

after which conventional American and 

coalition ground forces began rolling into 

Iraq. As the following month began, Army 

Rangers embarked on a mission to protect 

the Haditha Dam from being destroyed 

by Iraqi forces. The Rangers expected the 

operation to last approximately 24 hours. 

Instead it took them more than 12 days.

Sitting on the Euphrates River about 

100 miles northwest of Baghdad, the 

multilevel dam complex was a critical source 

of water for irrigation and electrical power 

in western Iraq. If the Iraqis succeeded in 

blowing up the dam, the releasing waters 

would flood the down-river areas, causing 

a humanitarian and environmental disaster 

and a strategic delay en route to Baghdad. 

Seizing the dam complex would protect 

the water supply and retain the ability to 

provide electricity, both of which were 

critical resources during the approaching 

summer months of 2003.

The Rangers expected the dam to be 

well defended. In preparation for the assault 

on the dam, fighters assigned to the 410th 

Air Expeditionary Wing (AEW) conducted 

preparatory air strikes against Iraqi forces 

in the dam’s vicinity. Air support for 

Special Forces in the battle came from 

various coalition aircraft including U.S. 

Army Special Operations Aviation units. 

However, that battle became one of the 

more unique operations for the AEW, and 

in particular, Air Guard pilots. The 410th 

was responsible for providing combat 

search and rescue capability for western and 

central Iraq. During the month-long air 

campaign over the western Iraqi desert, the 

A-10 and F-16 Air Guard pilots assigned 

to the AEW were involved in countless 

missions supporting Special Forces teams 

in need of close air support. The highly 

experienced Air Guard pilots assigned to 

the AEW, especially the A-10 pilots, helped 

insure the successful employment of close 

air support for friendly forces fighting to 

retain the Haditha Dam.

Special Operations AH-6s and F-16s 

from the 410th provided air cover as the 

Rangers took their convoy to Haditha. 

During the night, with support from 

the 410th, the Rangers seized the dam, 

a power station, and a transformer yard 

while facing light to moderate enemy 

resistance. Several Iraqis were killed and 

wounded; others, including 25 civilian 

workers, were taken prisoner. 

As daylight broke over the dam, the 

Munitions personnel from the 160th Fighter Squadron, 187th Fighter Wing, Alabama Air National Guard, assigned to the 410th Air Expeditionary Wing at 

a forward deployed location work on guided munitions on the pylon of one of their F-16C Fighting Falcons. The Falcon has an AIM-120A Advanced Medium 

Air-to-Air Missile fixed to the wing tip. The 410th Air Expeditionary Wing prepares the aircraft for take off for sorties on A-Day, the commencement of the air 

war for Operation Iraqi Freedom, March 19, 2003. (Photographer: SSgt Bennie J. Davis III, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
Rangers began taking increasing enemy 

fire from the south as well as coordinated 

attacks at both ends of the dam. Although 

the Rangers repelled the initial assault, 

Iraqi counterattacks continued with heavy 

mortar and artillery shells that rained down 

on the Rangers. Fortunately, the Rangers 

had ample air support from the 410th, 

which attacked several mortar positions. 

Even without the protection of darkness, 

the Air Guard A-10s attacked numerous 

enemy positions. At nightfall the Iraqis 

resumed their attacks against the Rangers, 

but once again close air supported the 

U.S. forces. A single bomb obliterated the 

attackers and shattered every window in 

the dam complex. Nevertheless, the siege 

continued for ten more days.

Many of the Air Guard pilots flying 

close air support were not only highly 

experienced pilots, but they possessed 

other critical skills as well. Most two-ship 

A-10 flights consisted of a pilot who had 

qualified as a Forward Air Controller 

(FAC) to guide other fighter aircraft to 

send their bombs to specific enemy targets. 

After delivering their own firepower, 

the flight leader and his wingman would 

remain over the battlefield to help the 

other aircraft to accurately employ their 

munitions. The wingman was a qualified 

combat search and rescue (CSAR) pilot 

who would coordinate with other rescue 

assets if needed.

The Rangers on the dam were greatly 

outnumbered. Nevertheless, the combined 

efforts of an FAC-qualified pilot, a CSAR 

pilot, and observation posts manned by 

additional Rangers and Air Force enlisted 

terminal attack controllers (who cleared 

airborne weapons for release) ensured the 

Rangers on the dam would not be overrun. 

That operation reflected the typical attitude 

held by Air Guard aviators, especially A10 pilots, who believed that when ground 

troops needed help, the pilots would remain 

as long as possible to “lay it on the line more 

and expose themselves more over the target 

area.” Even when the Rangers were not 

taking enemy fire, the A-10s provided cover 

so the Rangers could catch a few hours of 

sleep. The 410th fighters also supplied air 

cover during medical evacuation missions 

for killed and wounded Rangers.

53 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

The 114th Fighter Wing, South Dakota Air National Guard, Prime Base Engineer Emergency Force (Prime BEEF), at Tallil Air Base, Iraq. The photo was 

taken near Tallil Air Base, in the ruins of Ur, considered one of the oldest cities in the world, 2003. (Air National Guard Photo.)

Rangers shared their experiences with 

the pilots basically explaining, “if it were 

not for you guys, I would not be here.”
54

During the twelfth day of the siege, the 

outnumbered Rangers continued to face 

repeated attacks by the enemy force. The 

Air Guard A-10 and F-16 pilots realized 

early in the battle that the close air support 

they provided was the vital element that 

kept the Iraqi forces at bay, a matter of life 

and death for the Rangers. In the end the 

coalition forces prevailed. Military experts 

believed that without the air support, 

especially the A-10s, the Rangers would 

not have won the battle. Not only did the 

coalition forces secure the Haditha Dam 

complex, but they seriously reduced the 

fighting effectiveness of the Iraqi Armored 

Task Force in the Haditha area. Weeks 

later, back at Fort Benning, Georgia, some 

of the Air Guard pilots had the opportunity 

to meet the Rangers they looked after. The 

meeting became emotional at times because 

Rangers shared their experiences with the 

pilots basically explaining, “if it were not 

for you guys, I would not be here.”

The Air Guard experience at Haditha 

Dam dramatically illustrated its essential 

role in Operation Iraqi Freedom air 

support. In addition to its air power the 

ANG provided a robust force of over 

3,530 personnel for the expeditionary 

combat support functions and many Air 

Guard senior officers held command 

positions during the war. Air National 

Guard intelligence personnel deployed 

overseas and supported the war effort in 

signals intelligence by flying Senior Scout 

missions and augmented Rivet Joint 

crews to “monitor the electronic activity 

of adversaries.” Although their pilots 

sat at controls in the United States, Air 

Guardsmen also “flew” Global Hawk 

and Predator unmanned aerial vehicle 

intelligence missions in Southwest Asia. 

The Air Guard also deployed air traffic 

control personnel, maintainers, and 

airspace managers. Over 27 percent of the 

total Air Force civil engineer force in Iraq 

came from the ANG; other Air Guard 

engineers supported Iraqi Freedom while 

operating in several other countries. 

Besides providing personnel ANG 

contributed aircraft and equipment to 

the war effort while continuing its efforts 

in Operation Enduring Freedom in 

Afghanistan and exercising a primary role 

in Operation Noble Eagle in the United 

States. For example, the ANG deployed 

40 percent of the mobile radars, mobile 

navigation aids, and 40 percent of the 

mobile control towers in Iraq. During the 

opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom 

in 2003, 48 of the 60 A-10s engaged in the 

Iraq war belonged to the Air Guard. Five 

Air Guard A-10 units and one active duty 

A-10 unit flew in this operation that year. 

Although the A-10 aircraft represented only 

eight percent of the total Air Force fighters 

used in that war, they flew 44 percent of 

the fighter sorties, and were responsible for 

60 percent of the targets destroyed. 

As in Afghanistan, the Air Guard 

contributed significant transportation 

capability to Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

Thirteen of ANG’s 25 airlift units 

participated, including 72 of 124 Air 

Force C-130s. Among their missions, Air 

Guard C-130 crews airlifted elements of 

the 82nd Airborne Division and the 3rd 

Marine Expeditionary Force. Those crews 

also flew one of the first day/night airlift 

missions into an Iraq air base and delivered 

the first humanitarian supplies into 

Baghdad International Airport. In Iraqi 

Freedom’s first six months, Air Guard C130 crews airlifted 22,000 tons of cargo, 

47,000 passengers, and flew 8,600 sorties 

in 21,000 hours.

Operation Iraqi Freedom’s intelligence 

collection efforts were enhanced by the 

A South Carolina Air National Guard F-16C Fighting Falcon aircraft from the 157th Expeditionary 

Fighter Squadron, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, is recovered following a nighttime mission at a forward deployed location during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The aircraft is armed with AIM-120B Advanced 

Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles, and AGM-88 High-Speed Antiradiation 

Missiles, March 23, 2003. (Photographer: SMSgt Edward E. Snyder. Air Force Photo.)
initial combat employment of the Air 

Force’s first (and as of 2007 only) blended 

wing: the newly formed 116th Air 

Control Wing, composed of ANG and 

active duty Air Force personnel based 

in Warner-Robins, Georgia. The wing 

deployed nine of its 11 assigned JSTARS 

aircraft to the Iraqi Freedom theater as 

well as over 600 unit personnel including 

one-tenth of the aircrews. Air Guardsmen 

composed about one-fourth of the Wing’s 

deployed personnel. 

Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) 

used more old-fashioned methods to 

reach its target populations. According 

to Rick Hofmann, president of the 

U.S. Psychological Operations Veterans 

Association, with leaflet drops and radio 

propaganda broadcasts as the chief weapons, 

its main purposes included persuading the 

enemy to surrender and convincing local 

civilians that the attackers were not the real 

enemy. “The objective is always to shorten 

the conflict by demoralizing the enemy 

and to keep civilians out of harm’s way.” 

For example, the 193rd Special Operations 

Wing of the Pennsylvania ANG deployed 

its Commando Solo aircraft for a variety 

of PSYOPS support to coalition agencies 

in Iraq. Flying from March to June 2003, 

its missions apparently fulfilled their goals. 

According to an Iraqi prisoner of war and 

former mid-level intelligence officer, the 

population in southern Iraq considered the 

coalition radio broadcasts more truthful 

than state-owned media. The leaflets also 

had a significant impact on the morale of 

Iraqi military and prompted considerations 

to surrender. The Iraqis concluded that 

U.S. planes could as easily target them with 

bombs as leaflets if their intent waslethal.

As essential to the war effort as were 

C-130s, A-10s, and piloted reconnaissance 

and surveillance aircraft, they could not 

have completed their missions efficiently 

without aerial refueling. During the war 

in Iraq, the Air Force deployed 200 tanker 

aircraft based at 15 locations. Air National 

Guard tankers provided one-third of 

the Air Force refueling aircraft deployed 

for Iraqi Freedom, and an additional 35 

ANG tanker aircraft conducted air bridge 

operations. Meanwhile, in the United 

States, the Air Guard had 21 remaining 

tanker aircraft tasked to support Operation 

Noble Eagle (ONE), 70 percent of the 

tanker alerts and aerial refueling missions 

for ONE. The most widely used resource in 

the ANG, however, stayed on the ground: 

air traffic controllers. With Operation Iraqi 

Freedom, the ANG’s Air Traffic Control 

Squadrons now supported three major 

operations including Operation Noble 

Eagle and Operation Enduring Freedom.

While the Air Guard participated in 

Iraqi Freedom in its traditional roles such as 

airlift, air refueling, airborne reconnaissance, 

and psychological operations, it also engaged 

in new roles that involved historically 

significant combat capabilities, especially 

systems that allowed precision attacks that 

would not only destroy the intended target 

but reduce or eliminate collateral damage. 

Perhaps the most important was the day, 

night, and all-weather LITENING II 

targeting pod fitted to ANG fighter aircraft. 

55 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Commando Solo EC-130E from the 193rd Special Operations Wing, Pennsylvania Air National 

Guard, sits on the ramp at undisclosed location during Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi 

Freedom in late 2005. (Official Photo by: Capt David Earhart, 193rd Special Operations Wing. Air 

National Guard Photo.) 

Air National Guard tankers 

provided one-third of the 

Air Force refueling aircraft 

deployed for Iraqi Freedom...
56

LITENING II targeting pods allowed a 

precise fix of the location of enemy vehicles. 

The Air Force Reserve and Air National 

Guard developed that pod in conjunction 

with the Air Force and defense contractors 

because the active force could not provide 

the equipment needed by the Air Reserve 

Components to equip their fighter units 

for precision attacks under any conditions.

In 2004 the 107th Fighter Squadron, 

127th Wing, Michigan ANG, became 

the first unit to use the Theater Air 

Reconnaissance System pod in combat in 

conjunction with a second F-16C carrying 

a LITENING targeting pod. Both also 

carried precision guided munitions. While 

in Iraq the 107th flew combat missions 

over some of the fiercest battles waged in 

the Fallujah and Najaf areas, known for 

their anti-American activities. With the 

escalation of the Iraqi insurgency that year, 

characterized by roadside detonations of 

improvised explosive devises, the use of 

targeting pods along with manned and 

unmanned aerial surveillance also proved 

their utility to the safety of coalition troops 

on the ground.

Although President George W. Bush 

famously proclaimed an end to major 

hostilities in Operation Iraqi Freedom on 

May 1, 2003, and Saddam Hussein was 

captured on December 13 of that year 

and executed December 30, 2006, the 

Iraqi conflict continued through 2007 

and the Air National Guard continued 

its involvement. Overall, ANG’s contribution to the “global war on terrorism” 

was unlike any previous combat operation 

in its history. During Fiscal Year 2006, 

Air National Guard crews flew more than 

50 percent of the fighter, tanker, and 

airlift sorties for Operation Noble Eagle; 

provided almost one-third of the fighter 

sorties in Operation Enduring Freedom; 

and provided over one-third of the fighter 

and tanker sorties for Operation Iraqi 

Freedom. Air National Guard crews also 

supported 75 percent of the tanker sorties 

and over 60 percent of the airlift sorties to 

other theaters. In addition, Air National 

Guard expeditionary combat support units 

participated in operations and exercises 

around the world. More than two-thirds 

of the Air National Guard personnel have 

engaged in worldwide operations since 

September 11, 2001. The Air Guard 

also deployed approximately one-third 

of the force dedicated to support the war 

in Iraq. By 2004 nearly 40 percent of 

the total Air Force aircraft deployed for 

overseas operations were assigned to the 

Air National Guard. That illustrated the 

continued reliance on Air Guard aircraft 

in the total Air Force aircraft deployments 

since the end of the Cold War. With 

no end in sight to the “global war on 

terrorism,” the long term impact of such 

heavy demands on the ANG’s citizen 

airmen was impossible to gauge. f

An F-16C Block 30, 107th Fighter Squadron, 127th Wing, Michigan ANG, carrying Litening II pods in Kirkuk, Iraq. The 107th was the first F-16 u

the Total Air Force to be based in Iraq. (Photographer: MSgt Glenn Wilkiwitz, Air National Guard. Air National Guard Photo.) 
SUPPORT

57 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

W hile Guardsmen pursued the “global war on terrorism” overseas, 

at home, Air National Guard (ANG) citizen airmen engaged 

in real world missions supporting civil authorities. They fought 

forest fires, fed cattle during blizzards, conducted hurricane and flood relief 

operations, assisted the Customs and Border Patrol in the American southwest, 

and even protected Santa Claus as he made his rounds on Christmas Eve! Whether 

only a few airmen might participate in these operations, the significance of their 

TO CIVIL AUTHORITIES
contributions lay not in sheer numbers 

of personnel, but rather the specialized 

technical capabilities they provided.

Weapons of Mass 

Destruction-Civil 

Support Teams

The Department of Defense first authorized the formation of Weapons of Mass 

Destruction-Civil Support Teams (WMDCSTs or CSTs) in the 1990s to assist civilian 

first responders with technical advice, 

communications, and other support during 

potential major disasters within the United 

States. Twenty-two ANG and Army 

National Guard specialists composed 

each WMD-CST. On September 11, 

2001, Scotia, New York’s 2nd Civil 

Support Team became the first of those 

teams to deploy in a real crisis. After 

the tragedy that day, Congress wanted 

each state and territory to have one of 

those units with California meriting 

two teams making the final total 55. As 

of August 2007 52 of those teams had 

been certified.

Exemplifying the kind of work handled by Civil Support Teams, on February 

28, 2007, a barge containing 220,000 

gallons of an irritating chemical hit a 

lock on the Ohio River between Illinois 

and Kentucky sending approximately 

10,000 gallons into the water. The spill 

gave off a foul smell and “caused quite 

a scare,” observed the Heartland News. 

The chemical could “cause dizziness and 

irritate the eyes, nose, and throat” as 

well as “be damaging to animals directly 

exposed to it.” Released as a liquid, it 

evaporated into a gas that threatened 

residents of Metropolis, Illinois. The spill 

caused that portion of the Ohio River to 

close. Kentucky’s 41 CST, including 

four specially trained Air Guardsmen, 

responded immediately and began to 

monitor the air quality. Working in 

conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard, 

the team called in the 5th Civil Support 

Team of Illinois to monitor its side of 

the river and the 45th Civil Support 

Team of Tennessee joined it to monitor 

Kentucky. Although the Coast Guard 

contained the spill, the CSTs continued 

their monitoring another two days 

until the chemicals were transferred to 

another barge.

Natural Disasters

Members of Weapons of Mass 

Destruction-Civil Support Teams were 

not the only Air Guardsmen to respond 

to disasters. Traditionally, governors 

called out National Guard units when 

faced with natural but localized disasters 

such as blizzards, earthquakes, floods, 

and forest fires. The president could also 

federalize them in major disasters that 

threatened to overwhelm the resources 

of individual states or communities. 

According to the National Guard 

Bureau, “The indigenous skills and 

capabilities National Guardsmen used 

to respond to natural disasters are the 

same skills and capabilities that enable 

us to successfully respond to potential 

terrorist threats.”

 Airborne wildfire fighting could be 

extremely dangerous. While Air Force 

C-130s normally conducted low-level 

flight training at 300 feet above ground 

level, fire fighting missions flew at 120 

to 150 feet in heat and smoke often 

in remote, mountainous areas. Major 

Iver Osborn, an instructor pilot with 

the 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming Air 

Guard, stressed that he found airborne 

fire fighting his most challenging mission. 

Making sure the fire retardant found its 

target, “cut to the heart of true piloting 

skills....” The Air Guard found that fire 

fighting helped its aircrews hone their 

wartime low-level airdrop, formationflying skills. In addition to the 153rd, 

California ANG’s 146th Tactical Airlift 

Wing and North Carolina ANG’s 145th 

Airlift Wing flew firefighting missions.

The Air National Guard’s main 

tool for fighting fires was the Modular 

58

National Guard Airmen have been assisting state civil authorities in floods since at least the great Mississippi flood of 1927. Here members of the Indiana Air National Guard participate in an emergency 

operation after recent flooding in Fort Wayne, Indiana, March 1, 1982. (Photographer: TSgt David 

Craft. Air Force Photo.) LEFT: C-130E Hercules cargo aircraft from the 146th Airlift Wing, California, rigged with a Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) makes a Phoschek fire retardant 

drop on the Simi Fire in Southern California, October 28, 2003. (Camera Operator: Sgt Alex Koenig, 

USAF. Air Force Photo.)
Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS), 

which underwent several updates since 

its first use in September 1971 by the 

146th. Housed in C-130s, a MAFFS 

could disperse up to 27,000 pounds—

almost 3,000 gallons—of commercial 

fire retardants or an equivalent amount 

of water. Newer aircraft like the C-130J 

held the MAFFS II, which carried even 

more fire retardant, could disperse it 

more rapidly over a wider area, and was 

easier to recharge after a mission than 

its predecessor. The growing number of 

significant forest fires in the 21st century 

challenged U.S. firefighting resources. 

Looking back on 2006, Colonel Harold 

Reed, 153rd Airlift Wing commander, 

explained that Wyoming Air Guard 

members used to get called out for 

wildfires about once every three years 

for one or two weeks at a time. Now 

they were being called out each year for 

about a month at a time. “It keeps us 

very, very busy,” he said, adding that 

forest fires have become more severe 

and tougher to fight.

Blizzards also created the need for 

National Guard support. As with the 

Civil Support Teams, often both Army 

Guard and Air Guard units assisted with 

health and welfare matters, conducted 

debris removal and power generation, 

and provided supply and transportation 

support in connection with snowstorms. 

For example, a Christmas-time 2006 

blizzard at the airport hub of Denver 

International Airport closed that facility 

down for two days. Army and Air 

Guardsmen took food and water to 

thousands of travelers trapped there. In 

the same storm, western Kansas received 

between 15 and 36 inches of snow 

with drifts as high as 13 feet. The Air 

National Guard not only assisted people, 

but also dropped bales of hay to feed 

stranded cattle. 

Relief operations such as those that 

occurred after a 6.7 earthquake on the 

Big Island of Hawaii in October 2006 

and after floods in Washington State 

the following month, also typified 

ANG disaster and relief operations. 

In Washington Army and Air 

Guardsmen provided transportation 

for sandbagging, resupply, evacuation, 

high wheel vehicle operations, and traffic 

control points. Guardsmen in Hawaii 

also assisted with aerial surveillance and 

transportation.

On August 29, 2005, the largest 

natural disaster the Air Guard faced in 

its 60 year history began when Hurricane 

Katrina hit the United States Gulf Coast. 

The most severe damage came from 

a 30-plus-foot storm surge along the 

Mississippi coast and the north shore 

of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and 

breaks in the levies along a canal in New 

Orleans. Several weeks later Hurricane 

59 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Following a devastating blizzard in 1949, Colorado Air Guard C-47s dropped hay to stranded and starving livestock throughout the Rocky Mountain region. 

Altogether the Colorado Air Guardsmen flew 17 such missions dropping tons of hay that saved thousands of cattle and wildlife. Colorado Air Guard F-51s and 

A-26s also flew 10 reconnaissance missions during that emergency, January 29, 1949. (Air National Guard Photo.)
60

Rita devastated portions of western 

Louisiana and eastern Texas, and then 

the less severe Hurricane Wilma damaged 

Florida. With much of the Guard’s 

personnel and equipment overseas in 

Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi 

Freedom, those hurricanes tested the 

ability of ANG to respond in wartime to 

a major disaster within the United States. 

Senior Master Sergeant Doug Gilbert 

arrived on the Gulf Coast August 29, 

2005, within hours of the storm’s arrival. 

From Florida’s 202nd RED HORSE 

Squadron, 125th Fighter Wing, Sergeant 

Gilbert was one of the first to enter the 

area. Seventy-three engineers from his 

unit worked in hard-hit Hancock 

County, Mississippi. First, his civil 

engineering unit established a base camp 

for infantrymen of the 3rd Battalion, 

124th Infantry Regiment, from the Florida 

Army National Guard. In addition, his 

unit began repairs in Hancock County 

communities working nearly around-theclock on multiple construction projects to 

restore power, clean and repair schools, 

and refurbish electrical supplies. “Most of 

the schools had four to eight feet of water 

in them.” While conducting a survey of 

the area, the school superintendent spotted 

Gilbert and began asking him questions. 

According to an American Forces Press 

Service interview, Gilbert “told her that 

the 202nd could help rebuild the schools 

and the community, [and she] cried and 

hugged him.” By mid-September, the 

schools could be occupied. As a Florida 

unit, the 202nd had worked many 

other hurricanes. However, Katrina’s 

devastation surpassed anything in their 

previous experience. 

Hurricane Katrina made its first 

U.S. landfall in Florida on August 25, 

2005. At that time, the Air National 

Guard had mobilized 840 personnel 

in that state, Mississippi, Louisiana, 

and Texas. Although the Air National 

Guard had a domestic mission to 

support local authorities in rescue and 

relief operations following a natural 

disaster, its utilization for such missions 

had been limited primarily to a select 

group of career fields such as civil 

engineers like Sergeant Gilbert, medical 

personnel, and services. In response to 

Hurricane Katrina, ANG units in all 

54 states and territories responded to 

the recovery efforts in the Gulf States. 

The ANG flew 73 percent of the airlift 

for the relief operations including its 

brand new C-130J and C-17 aircraft. 

In addition, ANG Combat Search and 

Mississippi Air National Guard (MSANG) personnel assist these displaced civilians as they disembark 

from MSANG C-17A Globemaster III cargo aircraft. These people were evacuated from Keesler Air 

Force Base, Mississippi, due to flooding from Hurricane Katrina and flown to Kelly City Base, Texas, 

August 30, 2005. (Photographer: SRA Heather Norris, Air Force Photo.) 

Mississippi Air National Guard Staff Sergeant Joseph L. Smith, with the 172nd Civil Engineering 

Squadron headquartered in Jackson, is a firefighter in his civilian life as well as one in the Guard. He is 

clearing debris in Gulfport, Mississippi, during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, September 9, 2005.

(Photographer: 2Lt Murray B. Shugars, Mississippi Army National Guard. National Guard Photo.)
Rescue pararescuemen and Combat 

Controllers saved over 1,300 victims. 

To support rescue and relief operations in New Orleans, the Air National 

Guard used the Naval Air Station, Joint 

Reserve Base, in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, 

on the Mississippi River’s West Bank. 

Within five hours of its orders, the 136th 

Airlift Wing, Texas ANG, deployed 41 

Guardsmen to Belle Chasse. Less than 

24 hours later, a C-130H landed at the 

air base with members of Louisiana’s 

159th Fighter Wing. Soon more aircraft 

arrived, delivering troops and supplies 

for New Orleans; offloaded pallets were 

stacked 10 deep on the aircraft parking 

ramp. Instead of heading into the 

flooded city, the 136th team remained 

at Belle Chasse and, within 36 hours of 

arriving, it established a fully functioning 

Air Terminal Operations Center and 

was keeping pace with the demanding 

mission schedule. That Aerial Port team, 

augmented by U.S. Navy cargo handlers 

and members of the 133rd Aerial 

Port Squadron, 133rd Airlift Wing, 

Minnesota, handled over 124 missions 

with 1.5 million pounds of cargo and 

974 passengers in one day. As one of its 

most crucial tasks, the Texas squadron 

downloaded the German pump system 

used to drain the city of New Orleans 

because its own pumps were inundated. 

It also uploaded two KC-135s with 140 

kennels filled with rescued dogs bound 

for adoption in Arizona.

Katrina also provided the first realtime opportunity for the Air National 

Guard’s Expeditionary Medical Support 

(EMEDS) teams to deploy in response to 

a domestic natural disaster. EMEDS was a 

collection of small, modular medical units 

that replaced larger theater hospitals. The 

EMEDS personnel could perform surgery, dental services, laboratory services, 

pharmacy services, and inpatient care. 

Although EMEDS usually had a specific 

bed limit such as 25 beds, medical 

personnel could still provide outpatient 

care for many victims. 

Because of the large amount of 

equipment an EMEDS team used, 

airlifting the 22 pallets bound for the 

Gulf Region took ANG C-130 units 

two days. Nevertheless, ANG EMEDS 

personnel arrived as early as August 29, 

2005. This group came from the 190th 

Air Refueling Wing, Kansas ANG, and 

the Combat Readiness Training Center 

in Alpena, Michigan, where EMEDS 

training was conducted. They set up 

operations in Gulfport, Mississippi, and 

at Louis Armstrong Airport in suburban 

U.S. Air Force and civilian medical personnel offload patients from a C-130H Hercules aircraft from 

the 130th Airlift Wing, West Virginia, Air National Guard, shortly after arriving at Houston, Texas. 

Department of Defense units were mobilizing as part of Joint Task Force Katrina to support the Federal 

Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-relief efforts in the Coast areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. (Air Force Photo.)

Within five hours of its orders, the 136th Airlift Wing, Texas 

ANG, deployed 41 Guardsmen to Belle Chasse.

61 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
62

New Orleans. In addition, the ANG 

also established a temporary facility 

in Hancock County, Mississippi, as a 

stop-gap until the severely damaged 

Hancock Medical Center, the county’s 

only medical facility, was back in 

operation. As a result, ANG EMEDS 

provided an essential service. These 

EMEDS consisted of medical personnel 

from Mississippi, Alabama, Kansas, and 

Delaware Air National Guard units. 

During the Katrina emergency EMEDS 

exemplified a total force operation where 

active duty, Air Guard, and Air Force 

Reserve personnel worked with Federal 

Emergency Management Administration 

(FEMA) medical teams to care for 

and transport thousands of Katrina 

victims. The EMEDS rapid deployment 

capability enabled over 30,000 people to 

be processed through the New Orleans 

airport in five days. 

On September 22, 2005, less than 

one month after Sergeant Gilbert 

and his 136th Aerial Port Squadron 

members deployed to Mississippi, they 

were called back to Texas. Hurricane 

Rita was expected to hit the Houston 

area where many Katrina evacuees had 

settled. In the end Rita missed the large 

metropolitan area, but on September 

24, the hurricane devastated Louisiana’s 

Vermilion Parish and sections of east 

Texas. The Air Guard’s base at Ellington 

Field, near Houston, reopened the next 

day and the 136th Airlift Wing, based in 

Fort Worth, used it as an aerial logistics 

site to fly in water, meals-ready-to-eat, 

and other supplies to first responders 

and Guardsmen supporting rescue and 

recovery efforts.

For his hurricane work, Master 

Sergeant Lynn Bailey, of the 147th 

Fighter Wing, Texas, “a reluctant hero,” 

became one of the few Air National 

Guardsmen to receive an Army Guard 

medal. On September 26, 2005, Major 

General Charles Rodriguez, the Adjutant 

General of Texas awarded it to Sergeant 

Bailey for potentially saving the lives 

of hundreds of “impaired and elderly” 

nursing home residents from Beaumont, 

Texas. Sergeant Bailey served as a fuels 

superintendent for the 147th. In that 

capacity, he responded to “a desperate 

request” from the Texas Department 

of Transportation to deliver fuel for 

30 buses stranded at the Sam Houston 

Race Park. The buses required the fuel 

to assist with evacuation in anticipation 

A Puerto Rico Air National Guard C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft flew patients evacuated from Keesler 

Air Force Base, Mississippi, because of Hurricane Katrina. Here personnel from the Puerto Rico Air National Guard prepare to load a stretcher-borne patient into a waiting ambulance to be taken to Wilford 

Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for further medical treatment, August 30, 2005. 

(Photogapher: SRA Heather Norris, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
of Hurricane Rita. “It brought back 

memories of Iraq when we were 

desperately trying to get fuel from 

Baghdad to Kirkuk during the initial 

stages of the war,” recalled Sergeant 

Bailey. “Our unit was the first one able 

to deliver fuel to Baghdad.”

 Next the 147th had to rescue 

the buses in Beaumont designated to 

evacuate older and infirm residents of 

the area. The Army National Guard 

there had enough gas, but it lacked 

the proper nozzle to put the fuel into 

the buses. Sergeant Bailey did not have 

the proper nozzle either. Instead, with 

the help of Staff Sergeant Vic Taylor, 

a refueling mechanic, he improvised 

one using old refueling parts from his 

shop. “I was awake for 26 hours, but I 

was running on adrenaline,” Sergeant 

Bailey explained. Army Guardsmen 

conducted the actual rescue operation. 

But they could not have done it without 

the ingenuity of Sergeant Bailey’s team.

If Hurricanes Katrina and Rita 

were not enough of a challenge for a 

National Guard already stretched thin 

by Operations Enduring Freedom and 

Iraqi Freedom, one month after Rita, 

Hurricane Wilma slammed into Florida. 

While not as destructive as its two 

predecessors, it still affected a substantial 

number of Floridians. The 172nd Airlift 

Wing from Jackson Air National Guard 

Base, Mississippi, for example, delivered 

140,000 pounds of food, water, and juice 

to Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, in 

its C-17 Globemaster. 

The Air National Guard not only 

performed rescue and relief work in the 

United States, but also overseas. For 

example, in 1998, a typhoon destroyed 

homes and buildings on Guam. The 

ANG helped rebuild them. Then in 

2005, after a major earthquake affected 

a mountainous, hard-to-reach area 

of Pakistan, the 105th Airlift Wing, 

New York, flew humanitarian missions 

using its huge C-5 Galaxies to transport 

helicopters and rescue supplies. Air 

Guardsmen and their aircraft also fought 

major fires abroad as in 1997 when the 

Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd 

Airlift Wing assisted the Indonesian 

government in fighting massive fires in 

that nation’s tropical rain forests.

Operation Jump Start

Illegal immigration over the border 

with Mexico had plagued the United 

States for generations. Over the years 

various programs had been developed 

to allow needed farm workers to 

come in legally and temporarily while 

the path to a green card (permanent 

residency) and citizenship had become 

more difficult. Border communities 

and increasingly, areas farther north, 

complained of welfare and subsidized 

medical costs, crowded schools, and 

drugs and high crime associated with 

undocumented aliens. Because many 

of those illegals willingly worked long 

hours at low wages, and even became 

home and business owners paying taxes 

and contributing to the community, 

they received significant support among 

certain segments of the population 

and among certain businesses. As a 

result of that dichotomy, the federal 

government was unable to develop a 

satisfactory policy of dealing with illegal 

immigration while the estimated number 

of those undocumented aliens by 2006 

had risen to an estimated 12 million. 

After September 11, 2001, the fear that 

terrorists also used the porous Mexican 

border tipped the balance in favor of 

clamping down on illegals. Primary 

responsibility for that mission belonged 

to the Border Patrol of the Immigration 

and Naturalization Service (Department 

of Justice), which after 2003 became 

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in 

Air National Guard Captain Jose R. D. Cabrera, a nurse from the 146th Medical Squadron, California 

Air National Guard, gets a blood pressure reading of a local villager in the town of Punta Gorda, Belize, 

during a 15-day medical humanitarian operation called Medrete 03. During the operation over 3,600 

patients were treated and help was delivered to people affected by Hurricane Iris, February 13, 2002. 

(Photographer: MSgt Rod Thornburg, USA. Air Force Photo.)

63 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
64

the Department of Homeland Security. 

Some National Guard units helped the 

CBP by building a fence along a portion 

of the border and assisting in the effort 

to staunch the flow of illegal drugs into 

the United States.

In response to growing criticism of the 

federal government’s efforts at preventing 

the influx of undocumented aliens, 

President George W. Bush promised on 

May 15, 2006, to bolster the Border Patrol. 

Because recruitment and training would take 

time, the president suggested that for at least 

one year, up to 6,000 National Guardsmen 

at any one time could be deployed to assist 

the CBP on the Southwest border.

Operation Jump Start, the name given 

to that National Guard mission, involved 

the borders of Arizona, California, New 

Mexico, and Texas. Their governors agreed 

to accept National Guard units from other 

states deployed “to perform duties in 

support of this border enforcement effort.” 

Governors could decline participation 

if it conflicted with their Guard’s ability 

to respond to state emergencies. To 

minimize disruption the plan envisioned 

using the normal two-week training 

periods to rotate traditional (part-time) 

Guardsmen in and out of the border. The 

memorandum of understanding signed 

between the Department of Defense and 

the governors of the four border states 

explicitly removed the National Guard 

from law enforcement duties.

The Air National Guard played 

a significant role in Jump Start. As in 

other operations, its medical personnel 

used their skills for operating in hostile 

environments. According to Captain 

Anita Fouch, a nurse practitioner with 

West Virginia Air Guard’s 130th Airlift 

Wing, “Our mission is to deliver general 

medical care in an innovative manner 

in an isolated area.” Jump Start troops 

risked “dehydration, sunburn, insect 

bites and stings, snake bites, and twisted 

ankles.” To respond to those and other 

medical needs, seven West Virginia Air 

Guard members from the 167th Medical 

Group, 167th Airlift Squadron, 167th 

Airlift Wing, renovated an abandoned 

clinic in Playas, New Mexico, a 1,840-

acre town purchased by the Department 

of Homeland Security in 2003. The team 

commanded by Flight Surgeon Colonel 

David Porter deployed within four days 

of receiving their orders in July 2006. 

Colonel Porter praised Operation Jump 

Start as a good training opportunity: 

“There’s nothing like hands-on to 

really learn the job.” The need for 

a medical staff also underscored the 

Air National Guard airmen of the 188th Fighter Wing, Arkansas Air National Guard, install a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border east of San Luis, Arizona. 

The Guardsmen were working in partnership with the U.S. Border Patrol as part of Operation Jump Start, October 3, 2006. (Photographer: SSgt Dan 

Heaton, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
dangers the Guardsmen faced near the 

border. “You see ‘coyotes’ [smugglers] 

with truckloads of people just speeding 

through,” explained National Guard 

Bureau Historian William Boehm, 

who visited the border operations in 

September 2006. “It’s a nasty place.”

The ANG performed other functions 

as well. For example, 17 Washington 

Air National Guard members with 

the 252nd Combat Communications 

Group also deployed to Arizona to set 

up a radio communications network. 

Even traditional Guard duties such as 

road building by ANG civil engineers 

could take a surprising turn in the 

southwestern desert. For two weeks 

25 Nevada Air Guardsmen from the 

152nd Civil Engineering Squadron 

took part in an unusual caravan as they 

graded rough roads for the Border Patrol 

to use. Their work took them to the 

Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation, 

approximately one mile from the U.S.-

Mexico border. According to Master 

Sergeant David Tilley, the unit’s 

noncommissioned officer in charge and 

a supervisor in the broadband department for Churchill County Communications, the caravan consisted of his team, 

a Border Patrol agent who “kept watch” 

on their work, and “a car loaded with 

two archaeologists and a monitor from 

the Tohono O’Odham reservation.” The 

archaeologists and Indian got involved if 

the Guard disturbed artifacts. The tribe 

approved the construction of vehicle 

barriers to slow down the illegal aliens 

from crossing into the United States.

Including its Operation Jump 

Start support personnel deployed some 

distance from the border, by August 

1, 2006, the National Guard met its 

benchmark of over 6,000 participating 

Guardsmen. Two days later, President 

Bush visited the Texas border where 

he observed Guardsmen “working long 

hours ... to keep this border secure .... 

We saw choppers of all kinds of new 

equipment on it—airplanes that can 

interdict people flying in drugs, fast boats 

to stop the people trying to bring drugs or 

people up and down the coast of Texas.” 

He also noted that for each Guardsman 

working construction, logistics, or 

surveillance, “it means there’s one more 

Border Patrol agent out on the front line. 

So we’re going to use this Guard until we 

get 6,000 more people trained.”

Other Operations

The Air National Guard also participated in noncombat support missions 

that sometimes took it beyond the U.S. 

boundaries. For example, in Operation 

LC-130Hs equipped with landing skis, operated by the 109th Airlift Squadron, New York Air National Guard, parked on the ice pack at McMurdo Station 

at Ross Island in Antarctica during Operation Deep Freeze 2001. The unit operates six LC-130s between Christchurch, New Zealand, and a number of U.S. 

National Science Foundation stations located on the Antarctic ice pack, November 5, 2001. (Photographer: MSgt Joe Cupido. Air Force Photo.)

65 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
66

Winter Freeze, from November 2004 

through January 2005, nearly 250 Army 

and Air Guardsmen provided assistance 

to the Customs and Border Patrol 

along 295 miles of the United StatesCanadian border. That operation included military personnel from U.S. 

Northern Command’s Joint Task Force 

North who helped the Border Patrol 

to “keep potential terrorists out of the 

country and to break up smuggling rings 

that try to get them in.” In order “to detect, 

deter, and monitor suspicious actions ... 

Air Guard crews flew twin-engine, C-26 

airplanes out of Syracuse, N.Y.”

Operation Winter Freeze, first 

conducted in 2004, represented a new 

direction for the Air National Guard. By 

including other military services besides 

the Air Force, it truly implemented the 

total force concept. Almost as significant, 

an arrangement between the president 

and the governors permitted a Guard 

leader to command airmen under both 

state and federal jurisdiction. The G8 Economic Summit in Georgia, the 

Democratic and Republican national 

political party conventions in Boston and 

New York City respectively, also operated 

using joint task forces. For the first time 

in the nation’s history, “... a single 

officer stood on top of both state and 

federal chains of command for a single 

operation.” The Guard’s joint force state 

headquarters staffs were integrated with 

their counterparts at USNORTHCOM, 

state police, the Secret Service, and the 

Federal Bureau of Investigation for those 

missions. Congress, responding to the 

success of those arrangements, passed 

legislation in October 2004 making it 

easier for the secretary of defense to use 

National Guardsmen who were still under 

the command of their state governors to 

conduct homeland security operations.

On the other side of the world Air 

National Guard Lieutenant Colonel 

Gary James of Schenectady, New York’s 

109th Airlift Wing, and his crew of five, 

piloted one of the two final LC-130 

cargo planes to close the 2006 Operation 

Deep Freeze located at McMurdo 

Station near the South Pole. The mission 

ended because the temperature dropped 

to almost minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit 

in three days. Since 1988 the squadron 

had provided the air supply bridge for 

the National Science Foundation’s study 

of Antarctica. Lieutenant Colonel Walt 

Clark, Pacific Air Forces Director of 

Operations and Plans for Joint Task Force 

Support Forces Antarctica Operation 

Deep Freeze, noted that the military 

considered that operation, “its most 

difficult peacetime mission because of 

the extreme austerity of the environment 

and the remoteness of Antarctica ... the 

temperatures are so severe that at times 

aircraft cannot fly because the fuel gels and 

the steel shrinks, causing fuel leakages.” 

Supplies and people were flown by C130s to McMurdo where, in summer, 

these airplanes with wheels landed on an 

ice runway near the station. However, as 

it got colder, the ski-equipped LC-130s 

landed on a snow-covered skiway on 

the Ross Ice Shelf a few miles from the 

station. In 2006 the operation included 

466 flights—a record—and it also 

boasted the most flights over the South 

Pole, 337. In the spring and summer, 

the 109th headed toward the North Pole 

where it supported the National Science 

Foundation and several other nations in 

Greenland and above the Arctic Circle.

This sampling of how the Air National 

Guard support to civil authorities would 

be incomplete without mentioning an 

additional, important duty regarding 

the North Pole. Every year the North 

American Aerospace Defense Command 

along with its Canadian counterpart 

tracked Santa Claus as he flew through the 

northeast air space. Just in case Rudolph’s 

nose failed or the sleigh developed a 

problem, the Air National Guard had jet 

fighter aircraft ready to fly to Santa’s aid.

The Christmas Eve tracking of Santa 

receives national attention. However, for 

much of an Air National Guard unit’s 

support for civil authorities, only the local 

media emphasize its accomplishments. 

Most Air National Guardsmen live and 

hold civilian jobs within their home 

communities in contrast to active duty 

airmen who live on or near air bases and 

move every few years. When emergencies 

like floods, tornados, or blizzards occur, 

these Guardsmen often join their local 

first responders. The Air National Guard’s 

role in natural and man-made disasters 

like forest fires could be as hazardous 

as if they were in combat. Similarly, 

their participation in major noncombat 

missions like Operation Deep Freeze can 

also pose extreme dangers. Regardless 

of the risks involved, the role of the 

Air National Guard in supporting civil 

authorities, state and federal, remains a 

significant one. f

Operation Winter Freeze, 

first conducted in 2004, 

represented a new direction 

for the Air National Guard.
67 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

EPILOGUE

TOWARD THE FUTURE 

W hen Lieutenant General Craig R. McKinley became the director 

of the Air National Guard in May 2006, he faced a “perfect 

storm” of challenges. They arose from efforts to continue 

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s transformation policy, which remained 

largely unchanged after September 11, 2001. Involving the Base Realignment 

and Closure Commission (BRAC), the Quadrennial Defense Review, and the 

President’s Budget Directive (PBD) 720, they threatened the Air National 

Guard’s (ANG) existing roles, missions, and personnel numbers. General 

McKinley, like his predecessor, Lieutenant General Daniel James III had to deal 

with these changes while preserving the Guard’s militia culture, community ties, 

The Predator is a high-altitude aerial reconnaissance 

plane that is used for surveillance. Here it serves as 

eyes in the sky for ground forces in Operation Iraqi 

Freedom. (Photographer: Staff Sgt Jeremy T. Lock.

Air Force Photo.) 
state missions, and federal warfighting 

capabilities. Simultaneously, the resulting proposed personnel and aircraft 

reductions also impacted the ANG’s 

other responsibilities. These included 

most of the expanded air sovereignty 

alert missions associated with Operation 

Noble Eagle, and the Guard’s ongoing 

support to civil authorities and Air 

Force operations around the world. 

The BRAC procedure was instituted as a way to depoliticize closing superfluous military bases and taking other 

cost-cutting steps that while streamlining the services could jeopardize local 

traditions and economic interests. In 

the BRAC procedure, a nine-member 

commission made recommendations 

to the president based on Department 

of Defense recommendations. If the 

president agreed with them, he sent the 

list to Congress, which could only accept 

the recommendations in their entirety 

or completely reject them. Moreover, 

the Air Force intended to acquire a 

new generation of highly capable and 

extremely expensive weapons systems 

including the F-22 and F-35 fighters and 

the KC-X tanker. The Air Force applied 

BRAC recommendations aggressively 

in order to achieve savings that could 

help it acquire those aircraft. The 

Quarterly Defense Review (QDR) and 

the Program Budget Decision (PBD) 

based on QDR’s conclusions took these 

plans into account. Because of the high 

cost and advanced capabilities of the 

new aircraft, there would not be enough 

new airframes purchased to replace 

existing ones on anything like a one for 

one basis. Therefore, like BRAC, the 

QDR and the PBD left the ANG with 

significant reductions in manpower 

and aircraft over the next five to six 

years. Various ANG units consequently 

needed to look to new mission areas that 

represented the future of the Air Force 

such as intelligence systems, unmanned 

aerial vehicles, space, and cyberspace. 

68

BELOW: Lieutenant General Daniel James III, Director, Air National 

Guard, talks with Lieutenant Colonel Carole Allan, Executive Officer, 

180th Fighter Wing, and Lieutenant Colonel Maryanne Jankowski, 

Recruiter, 180th Fighter Wing, as he arrives at the Toledo Express Airport, 

located in Swanton, Ohio, August 19, 2003. (Photographer: SRA Elizabeth 

Slater, USAF. Air Force Photo.)
69 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

Otherwise, they faced elimination. 

The creation of the Space and 

Information Superiority Division in the 

National Guard Bureau’s Air Directorate 

demonstrated the Air National Guard’s 

recognition that its future lay in those 

areas. In 2005 Colonel Kathleen Fick, 

that division’s first director, explained 

that if ANG wanted to conduct 

operational missions and do more than 

play a supporting role, it had to embrace 

the new missions. Those missions took 

advantage of the Air National Guard’s 

characteristics. For example, when active 

duty personnel engaged in intelligence, 

information operations, or space-related 

work joined the Guard, they required 

less training time. Guardsmen also 

provided continuity. Having the same 

people doing the same work year after 

year has always enhanced the Guard’s 

value, and with missions involving 

intelligence or information warfare, 

true proficiency may take years to 

establish. Traditional Guardsmen often 

spend their civilian hours performing 

similar work. As part time citizen 

airmen, they cost the government less 

than active duty Air Force personnel.

Intelligence, Surveillance,

and Reconnaissance 

According to Lieutenant Colonel Greg 

White, head of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Division in the new directorate, “In today’s 

warfare, we need more resources given to 

locating the enemy and fewer to destroy—

the opposite of previous warfare.”

Training took approximately 18 

months according to a member of the 128th 

Air Command and Control Squadron, 

116th Air Control Wing, but within another 

18 months, the active duty person assumed 

a different role. The ANG member, on 

the other hand, might continue working 

intelligence missions for many years. 

Not only were ANG ISR personnel 

involved in new missions, they sometimes 

served in new total force configurations. 

The 116th Air Control Wing based at 

Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, was the 

only “blended wing” in the Air Force. 

Consisting of active duty Air Force as well 

as traditional and full time Guardsmen, 

the wing’s command and control and its 

ISR people flew on an EC-8 with its Joint 

Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, 

better known by its acronym JSTARS. 

The JSTARS radar, first deployed in 

Operation Desert Storm in 1991, 

tracked military activity on the ground 

and in helicopters. 

The 170th Operations Support 

Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, 

Senior Airman Samantha Zimmerman, 192nd Fighter Wing, Virginia Air National Guard, launches her F-22A Raptor at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, February 3, 2007. (Courtesy of the 192nd Fighter Wing, Photographer: MSgt Carlos Claudio.)
70

Nebraska, associated as a unit with the 

55th Wing also based at Offutt. As with 

the 116th in Georgia, 170th Air National 

Guardsmen worked together with active 

duty airmen; unlike the 116th, they had 

a separate administrative structure. The 

55th Wing was home to Rivet Joint 

surveillance aircraft. Like JSTARS, 

Rivet Joint also operated in Desert 

Storm. It used automated and manual 

equipment for electronic and intelligence 

specialists to locate, record, and analyze 

communications and electronic data. 

The 55th Wing was also associated 

with the Utah Air National Guard’s 

169th Intelligence Squadron that ran 

the Senior Scout signals intelligence 

missions in Afghanistan.

Aerial intelligence collection systems 

like JSTARS and Rivet Joint conducted 

data in collaboration with intelligence 

systems on Earth, the Distributed 

Common Ground Systems (DCGS), 

another component of ISR. While the 

intelligence could be acquired anywhere 

in the world, a DCGS might lie thousands 

of miles away from the collection point. 

That made ground system work ideal for 

Air Guardsmen, because according to 

one commentator they could “perform 

... key missions without being mobilized 

and deployed.” The Air National Guard 

Distributed Ground Systems were located 

among other places in Alabama, Arkansas, 

Kansas, Nevada, and in associate units in 

California and Virginia. In August 2006 

the Air Guard established its largest DCGS 

at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. 

That facility became the new home for 

the 161st Intelligence Squadron.

Perhaps the most publicized of the Air 

Guard’s intelligence capabilities related 

to its use of unmanned aerial vehicles 

(UAVs)—also referred to as unmanned 

aerial systems, since they are basically 

plane-shaped computers and sensors. 

They came in a wide variety of sizes from 

tiny drones hardly bigger than a hobbyist’s 

model airplane to full size aircraft capable 

of carrying heavy weapons as well as a full 

complement of surveillance equipment. 

For example weaponized Predators flown 

from consoles in the United States and 

abroad had been used for combat in the 

Middle East. According to Colonel Gail 

Wojtowicz, chief of the Air Force’s Future 

Concepts and Transformation Division: 

“Unmanned aircraft are a critical 

piece of ongoing Air Force transformation. Their persistence couples 

an unblinking eye with the ability 

to rapidly strike targets of opportunity, such as fleeting terrorists 

or insurgents. They also operate 

in dangerous chemical or biological 

environments ... and are as effective 

in conducting mundane tasks in the 

30th hour as they are in the first.”

General McKinley considered that, “This 

Three Connecticut Air National Guard 103rd Fighter Wing A-10A Thunderbolt II attack aircraft fly in 

trail formation in preparation to refuel from a KC-135R Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft as they 

fly to their new home base with the 188th Fighter Wing, Arkansas Air National Guard, at Fort Smith, 

Arkansas, as part of a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) reorganization, April 10, 2007. (Photographer: Senior MSgt Thomas Meneguin. Air Force Photo.)
71 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 

new mission is extremely vital to the 

nation’s defense.”

While individual Guardsmen had 

been operating UAVs for years alongside 

active duty airmen, in November 2006 

the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing, March 

Air Reserve Base, California, became 

the first ANG unit to fly them. Taking 

responsibility for unmanned aerial vehicles 

demonstrated another way in which the 

Air Guard used its new missions: the 

163rd previously had been an air refueling 

wing. But the 2005 Base Realignment and 

Closure Commission removed its KC135 Stratotankers. Now the 163rd would 

fly its Predators to assist with firefighting 

strategy among other operations. The 

163rd also took responsibility for training 

others in flying and maintaining Predators. 

Because pilots and crews operated their 

UAVs remotely, “They can fly their 

missions over Iraq or Afghanistan, even hit 

the bad guys with a Hellfire missile, and 

then go home to coach their kids’ soccer 

game that night,” explained Air Guard 

Brigadier General Allison A. Hickey, 

Director of Total Force Integration at 

Headquarters, U.S. Air Force.

Space operations “provide a critical 

communications link to communities 

throughout the nation in the form of 

satellite support for everyday uses, 

television, computers, and wireless 

phones, but also serve as an important 

military deterrence from external threats.” 

However, space-related missions were not 

really new to the National Guard. In 1961 

Massachusetts’ 267th Communications 

Squadron technicians were assigned full 

time to nearby Hanscom Air Force Base 

to learn to handle special message traffic. 

That represented the earliest known 

involvement of an Air Guard unit in 

a military space mission. Three years 

later some enlisted Air National Guard 

technicians helped operate a satellite 

tracking station for the Air Defense 

Command’s United States Air Force Space 

Tracking Service. Other members of the 

unit helped staff the communications 

center at the Space Tracking Research 

and Development Center at Hanscom. 

The Air Force inaugurated a formal 

Space Command in 1982 and the United 

States Space Command was established in 

1985. In 1992 the Louisiana Air National 

Guard began developing the first ANG 

E8-C JSTARS flown by the 116th Air Control Wing, Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, a blended Air National Guard-Air Force organization, December 20, 

2002. (Air Force Photo.) 
unit devoted to space. Florida followed 

two years later with space launch support. 

Located at Canaveral Air Force Station, 

Florida, the 114thRange Flight provided 

launch support to the Air Force’s 45th 

Space Wing.

The 137th Space Warning Squadron, 

Greeley, Colorado, became operational in 

1995. The 137th provided critical, timesensitive missile warning, space launch, 

and nuclear detonation data to the 

military and the president. In addition, 

it operated the Air Force’s Survivable/

Endurable Mobile Warning System, 

special communications, and provided 

threat data while deployed as well as on a 

24 hour-a-day basis while at home. 

On May 21, 2004, the Alaska Air 

National Guard’s 213th Space Warning 

Squadron took over the operation of 

Clear Air Force Station, Alaska, which had 

been selected to become a completely 

Air National Guard facility. The 

installation’s long range radar operated 

all day, every day to provide tactical 

warning and attack assessment in case 

of a ballistic missile attack against 

North America. Permanently assigned 

Guardsmen ran the station for the first 

time in four decades. Previously, active 

duty Air Force personnel rotated through 

the remote site on one-year tours. 

Unlike other space-mission components of the ANG, the 148th Space 

Operations Squadron in the 163rd Refueling Wing, California, actually operated satellites. It commanded the $31 

billion Milstar satellite constellation, “the 

nation’s top priority communications 

system.” The 148th executed all operations including the satellites, ground 

control stations, and more than 1,500 

worldwide user terminals. In addition, it 

conducted maintenance, training, standardization/evaluation, and supply for a 

space operations center. 

While most space-related squadrons 

concerned the “final frontier,” the 111th

Space Operations Squadron was more 

earthbound. It used balloons, one of 

the oldest aerial surveillance techniques. 

Unlike their 19th century predecessors, 

those balloons could operate in near 

space, 65-90,000 feet above their 

home planet. Their Combat SkySat 

was launched by a two-to-three person 

team, and a two-person team, usually 

separated geographically, controlled the 

balloon. Unlike its tethered cousins, 

the Combat SkySat moved with the 

wind, providing voice and data relays 

to Special Tactics Teams. The payload 

parachuted to the ground at the end of 

its six-to-eight hour flight.

Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and space all involved warfarerelated technology. Other aspects of 

information technology, along with 

psychological operations are subsumed 

under the title of Information Operations 

(IO). According to Lieutenant Colonel 

Felipe Morales, head of Information 

Operations in the Space and Information 

Superiority Division: 

“Information operations ... are 

the integrated employment of the 

capabilities of influence operations, 

electronic warfare operations, and 

network warfare operations ... to 

influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp 

adversarial human and automated 

decision making while protecting 

our own.” 

Colonel Donald R. Fick, head of the 

ANG’s Plans, Programs, and Manpower 

organization, noted in 2001 that the ANG 

leadership was convinced that information 

warfare was key to the future of armed 

conflict and that the Air Guard was in a 

good position to recruit and retrain the 

high technology personnel who were 

critical to success in that mission area. 

According to a commentator in 2005, 

“In warfare, information is power, now 

more than ever. Those who control it 

have a distinct advantage at the strategic, 

operational, and tactical levels of war.” 

As with intelligence, information 

operations in all its forms was well-suited 

to the Guard. It could build upon critical 

skills possessed by active duty airmen 

returning to civilian life. But several Air 

Guard IO areas used skills not usually 

found in the Air Force. Therefore, those 

units tended to locate near information 

technology centers where they actively 

recruited civilians to become traditional 

Guardsmen. For example, the 262nd 

Information Warfare Aggressor Squadron, 

McChord Air Force Base, Washington 

State, was located near Microsoft headquarters where many of its traditional 

Guardsmen worked. Similarly, Maryland’s 

175th Information Operations Squadron 

supported the National Security Agency 

“In warfare, information is power, 

now more than ever. Those who 

control it have a distinct advantage 

at the strategic, operational, and 

tactical levels of war.”

72
78 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY

and could draw upon the many high tech 

companies found in the Washington, 

DC, metropolitan area.

Secretary of the Air Force Michael 

W. Wynne in a Letter to Airmen of May 

7, 2007, described how 21st century 

warfighting made these new missions so 

essential:

“Our adversaries ... attempt to 

access American industrial servers 

that contain sensitive data, exploit 

electromagnetic energy to try and 

jam or misdirect our precision 

weapons, and use radio transmitters 

to detonate improvised explosive 

devices, killing Americans, Coalition 

allies, and innocent civilians. In 

response to these threats, Airmen 

are actively ‘flying and fighting’ 

in cyberspace.”

Whether monitoring motion on 

the ground in JSTARS, vacuuming 

up electronic data or radio signals in 

Rivet Joints or Senior Scouts, airborne 

ANG crews used the new technologies 

to counteract American adversaries. 

Earthbound Air Guardsmen also used 

Distributed Ground Distribution Systems and unmanned aerial vehicles 

to collect intelligence and conduct 

surveillance. Moreover, their weaponized 

UAVs participated directly in warfighting 

missions. Meanwhile, the ANG supported 

missions in space and cyberspace. 

Air National Guardsmen also continued with their longtime missions. 

Pilots and planes protected the homeland 

with 24 hour seven days a week runway 

alerts; civil engineers established bases to 

support combat overseas and following 

natural disasters at home; medical personnel deployed for emergencies and 

ongoing missions; and ANG refueling and 

airlift wings provided essential support for 

the airborne operations of the Air Force 

and other services. Finally, Air National 

Guard fighters continued to augment and 

protect American and Coalition personnel 

engaged in Operations Enduring Freedom 

and Iraqi Freedom.

* * *

Senior Air Force leaders understood 

long before the 21st century that their 

service could not go to war or undertake 

major contingency operations without 

calling on the Air Guard and Reserve at the 

outset. In return the Air National Guard 

and the Air Force Reserve consistently 

met the service’s pressing requirements 

for operational support that was not 

available in the active force. Governors as 

well understood the importance of having 

the Air National Guard available should a 

disaster occur. In the 21st century, the Air 

Guard belied its “one weekend a month, 

two weeks a year” mantra as citizen airmen 

responded to increased natural disasters 

like hurricanes and forest fires while they 

prepared for the possibility of post-9/11 

terrorism at home and participated in 

combat operations abroad. As Chief of 

the National Guard Bureau, General H 

Steven Blum noted, “The role and the 

responsibility of the National Guard is 

not going to diminish in the future; it’s 

going to increase. The use of the National 

Guard has been increasing every day in the 

last six and a half years.” He estimated 

that 60,000 citizen soldiers and airmen 

contributed to the wars in Afghanistan 

and Iraq every day. “I don’t see any end 

in sight.” f

Senior Airman Kevin A. Doyle, a Ground Operations Specialist from the 167th Air Wing, West Virginia 

Air National Guard, shakes hands with National Guard Bureau Chief, Lieutenant General H Steven 

Blum, during the General’s visit to Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base, in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, 

in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, September 9, 2005. (Photographer: SFC Chuck Joseph, West 

Virginia Air National Guard. Air Force Photo.)

73 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY 
79 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY

Operated and maintained by the 148th Space Operations Squadron, 

California Air National Guard, the Milstar communications satellites 

link commanders with a variety of resources like ships, submarines, 

aircraft, land vehicles and manned-portable systems. It represents the 

Air National Guard’s increasing involvement in space and cyberspace 

and high technology weapon systems. (Image courtesy of Air Force 

Space Command Office of History.)
80 AIR NATIONAL GUARD AT 60: A HISTORY

Major E.G. “Buck” Shuler, a C-130 Hercules pilot for the 169th Operations Support Flight, 169th Fighter Wing, 

South Carolina Air National Guard, begins the descent into Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras as Lieutenant Colonel 

Scott Cain, the 169th Commander, concentrates on locating the runway. They are delivering much needed water 

purification units, food, and medical supplies to assist local civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, 

January 4, 1999. (Camera Operator: MSgt Edward Snyder. Air Force Photo.)

Layout and design by LM&O Advertising

PA07-721