page_title: 126th Air Refueling Squadron
section_title: Air Defense Command
hierarchical_section_title: 126th Air Refueling Squadron / History / Wisconsin Air National Guard / Air Defense Command
caption_attribution_description: English: 126th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron - North American F-86A-5-NA Sabre 48-129. Was Originally ordered as an F-86B.
context_page_description: The 126th Air Refueling Squadron is a unit of the 128th Air Refueling Wing of the Wisconsin Air National Guard stationed at General Mitchell Air National Guard Base, Wisconsin. The 126th is equipped with the KC-135R Stratotanker.
  The squadron was first organized in the Wisconsin National Guard as the 126th Observation Squadron in 1940. It is one of 29 National Guard Observation Squadrons formed before World War II.
context_section_description: The wartime 34th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron was redesignated the 126th Fighter Squadron and allotted to the National Guard on 24 May 1946. It was organized at General Mitchell Field, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and extended federal recognition on 25 June 1947.  The squadron was assigned to the newly formed 128th Fighter Group and equipped with North American F-51D Mustangs.
  The squadron upgraded to Lockheed F-80A Shooting Star jet aircraft in 1949.  The squadron was federalized during the Korean War on 1 March 1951 and Was redesignated the 126th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron the following day.  The 126th moved to Truax Field, Madison where it flew air defense missions. In February 1952.  As part of a major Air Defense Command (ADC) reorganization that replaced its fighter wings with regional air defense wings, responding to ADC's difficulty under the existing wing base organizational structure in deploying fighter squadrons to best advantage, the squadron's parent 128th Fighter-Interceptor Group was inactivated and the squadron was reassigned to the 31st Air Division. In April, the unit converted to North American F-86 Sabres and flew them until it was released from active duty and inactivated on 1 December 1952.
  The squadron was activated in the Wisconsin Air National Guard the same day and began to equip with the earlier F-86A model of the Sabre.  It continued its air defense mission though the 1950s, being upgraded to radar equipped Northrop F-89 Scorpion interceptors in 1954.  Its initial equipment was the 20mm cannon armed F-89C, but in 1960 it upgraded to the F-89J, which was armed with the AIR-2 Genie and equipped with data link or interception control through the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment system.
caption: 126th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron F-86A[note 3]
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