page_title: Florida Air National Guard
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Florida Air National Guard / History
caption_attribution_description: English: 159th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron F-106 and F-16 in flight, 1987
context_page_description: The Florida Air National Guard is the aerial militia of the State of Florida, United States of America. It is, along with the Florida Army National Guard, an element of the Florida National Guard.
  As an Air Force organization, the Florida Air National Guard is also part of the Air Reserve Component of the U.S. Air Force, a position it shares with its "federal" ARC partner, the Air Force Reserve Command.
  As state militia units, the units in the Florida Air National Guard are not in the normal United States Air Force chain of command. FL ANG units remain under the jurisdiction of the Governor of Florida though the office of the Florida Adjutant General unless they are federalized by order of the President of the United States. This jurisdictional model of answering to state, commonwealth or territorial governors applies to all Air National Guard units in all fifty states, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with the sole exception being the District of Columbia Air National Guard, which is under the direct jurisdiction of the President of the United States through the office of the Commanding General District of Columbia National Guard.
context_section_description: On 24 May 1946, the United States Army Air Forces, in response to dramatic postwar military budget cuts imposed by President Harry S. Truman, allocated inactive unit designations to the National Guard Bureau for the formation of an Air Force National Guard. These unit designations were allotted and transferred to various State National Guard bureaus to provide them unit designations to re-establish them as Air National Guard units.   
  A National Guard Bureau document dated 16 March 1946, gave states permission to request an Army Air Forces unit allotment.
  Months later, Florida accepted the 159th Fighter Squadron with an authorized strength of 50 officers and 303 enlisted men.  The unit was established at Imeson Airport in Jacksonville and Governor Millard F. Caldwell formally accepted the unit on 30 August 1946.  Full federal recognition of the unit was granted on 9 February 1947, when it became a National Guard unit under the U.S. Army Air Forces. However, 18 September 1947 is considered to be the Florida Air National Guard's official birth, concurrent with the establishment of the United States Air Force as a separate branch of the United States military under the National Security Act of 1947.
   
  In 1954, the 159th relinquished their F-51s for F-80 Shooting Stars and in 1956 upgraded again to F-86 Sabres.  On 1 July 1956, the 159th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron was authorized to expand to a group level organization and the 125th Fighter-Interceptor Group (125 FIG) was established by the National Guard Bureau, with the 159 FIS becoming the group's flying squadron.  Both organizations remained operationally gained by the Air Defense Command (ADC) and in 1960 transitioned to the F-102 Delta Dagger.
  In 1968, ADC was renamed Aerospace Defense Command and remained the 125 FIG's gaining command. That same year, the 125 FIG and its F-102 aircraft relocated from the soon-to-be closing Imeson Airport to a newly constructed military installation at the new Jacksonville International Airport. This was followed by another aircraft transition in 1974 to the F-106 Delta Dart.
  With the disestablishment of ADC in October 1979, operational claimancy of the 125 FIG was shifted to Tactical Air Command (TAC) and the unit transitioned to the F-16 Fighting Falcon in 1987.  With the disestablishment of TAC in 1992, the 125 FIG was renamed the 125th Fighter Group (125 FG) and in October 1995 it was expanded to a wing level organization and renamed the 125th Fighter Wing (125 FW), operationally gained by Air Combat Command (ACC).  The same year, the 125th also transitioned from the F-16 to the F-15 Eagle, the aircraft that it continues to fly today.
  Another Florida ANG flying unit, originally designated as Detachment 1, Southeast Air Defense Sector (Det 1, SEADS), is the 325th Fighter Wing Associate Unit (325 FW AU), which was officially activated on 1 October 1999 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The unit's initial mission was to train active duty and Air National Guard pilots to fly the F-15 Eagle in its F-15A/B and F-15C/D variants in the air dominance role. The Associate Unit members were completely integrated into all aspects of the active duty 2nd, 43rd, and 95th Fighter Squadrons, as well as the 325th Operations Support Squadron. Today, the unit continues that mission training responsibility for active duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard pilots to fly the F-22 Raptor in the air dominance role. The associate unit is operationally controlled by the 325th Operations Group under the overall direction of the 325th Fighter Wing.
  After the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, elements of every Air National Guard unit in Florida have been activated in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Flight crews, aircraft maintenance personnel, communications technicians, air controllers and air security personnel were also engaged in Operation Noble Eagle air defense overflights of major United States cities.  Florida ANG units have been deployed overseas as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan
caption: An F-106A and F-16A of the 125th Fighter-Interceptor Group, 1987
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